
Qass _iELu_2 

Book- . Alfl 6.Sl 



% % i i 



american ^tatejimen 



EDITED BY 



JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 



any. 



3llmfman ^fetatessmen 



THOMAS JEFFERSON 



BT 



JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 




BOSTON 
7GHT0N, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

New York : 11 East Seventeenth Street 
1891 



At 



^' 



Copyright, 1883, 
BT JOHN T. MORSE, JR. 



All rights reserved. 






The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.\ 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Comp 



CONTENTS. 

•— 

CHAPTER I. ,^g, 

TOUTH , ■ . ^ 

CHAPTER II. 
In the House of Burgesses 17 

CHAPTER HI. 
In Congress . . / 26 

CHAPTER IV. 

'.GAIN IN THE HoUSE OF BuRGESSES . . , .41 

CHAPTER V. 
Governor of Virginia 55 

CHAPTER VI. 
In Congress Again ....... 70 

CHAP^k'ER VII. 
Minister to France 

'CHAPTER VIII. 
Secretary of jstate.- Domestic Affairs . :' 

CHAPTER IX. 
Secret^* Y of sIiate. — Growth of Dissension?, .ill 



^.^^1> 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. j^^. 

Secretary of State. — Foreign Affairs . , 146 

CHAPTER XL 
In Retreat 166 

CHAPTER XII. 
Vice-President 173 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Preside? ±msT Term. — Offices. — Callender . 209 

CHAPTER XIV. 
President : First Term. — Louisiana . . .231 

CHAPTER XV. 
President: FiF<^ys 01 ^, — Impeachments. — Re- 
election . '^ei • • • • • • . 259 

CHAPTER XVL 
President : Second Term. — Randolph's Defec- 
tion. —Bue. - Treason 272 

CHAPTER XVIL 
President : Second T'BM. — Embargo . , .286 

CHAP'j /R XVIIL 

T MONTICELLO: POLI'lf< A) \piNIONS . . .321 

\ 

CHAPTER xix. 
At Montioello: Personal Mat:£r& — Death . 331 

INDE.,^ . . , 345 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

rOUTH. 

Little more t ^iiii • ce.ntury ago a civilized 
nation without an ar >ocjracy was a pitiful 
spectacle scarcely to be witnessed in the world. 
The American colon!. ing brought no 

dukes and barons with > the rugged wil- 

derness, fell in some sort under a moral com- 
pulsion to set up an imitation of the genuine 
creatures, and as their best makeshift in the 
emergency they ennobled in a kind of local 
fashion the richer Virginian planters. These 
gentlemen w^ere not without many qualifica- 
tions for playing the agreeable part assigned 
to them ; they gambled recklessly over cards 
and at the horse-racings and cock-fightings 
which formed their chief pleasures ; they ca- 
roused to excess at taverns and at each other's 
houses ; they were very extravagant, very lazy^ 
very arrogant, and fully persuaded of their 



2 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

superiority over their fellows, whom they felt 
it their duty and their privilege to direct and 
govern ; they had large landed estates and pre- 
served the custom of entailing them in favor of 
eldest sons ; they were great genealogists, and 
steeped in family pride; they occupied lioiises 
which were very capacious and noted for un- 
limited hospitality, but wKiJu were also ill-kept 
and barren ; they wer< i fond of ileld-sports and 
were admirable horseoaen; they respected the 
code of honor and quarrelled and let blood as 
gentlemen should ; they W3re generous, cour- 
ageous and high-spli'ited : a few of them were 
liberally educated .'rind we'1-read. We all know 
that, when the d' trial came, the best of 

them were little ini nor to the best men whose 
names are to be found in the history of any 
people in the ..orld ; ^ though when one studies 
the antecedents and social surroundings wlience 
these noble figures emerged, it seems as if for 
once men had gathered grapes from thorns, and 
figs from thistles. 

Rather upon tlie outskirts than actually 
within the sacied limits of this charmed circle, 
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743. 

1 It should be remembered that by good rights neither 
Washington, Jefferson, nor even Madison, before they be- 
came distinguished, would have been entitled to take rank in 
the exclusive coterie of the best Virginian families. 



YOUTH. o 

The first American Jefferson was dimly sup- 
posed to have immigrated from Snowdon, in 
Wales ; such at least was the family *' tradi- 
tion ; " w^hile the only thing certainly to be 
predicated concerning him is that he was one 
of the earliest settlers, having arrived in Vir- 
ginia before the Mayflower had brought the 
first cargo of Purita>is to the New England 
coast. Peter Jefferson, the father of Thomas, 
gave the family its first impetus on the road 
towards worldly success. He was a man of 
superb physique and of correspondingly vigor- 
ous intellect and enterprising temper. In early 
life he became very intimate with William 
Randolph of Tuckahoe ; he '' patented " in the 
wilderness a thousand acres of land adjoin- 
ing the larger estate of Randolph, bought from 
his friend four hundred acres more, paying 
therefor the liberal price of " Henry Weather- 
bourne's biggest bowl of arrack punch," as is 
jovially nominated in the deed ; and further 
cemented the alliance by marrying William's 
cousin, Jane Randolph, in 1738. The distinc- 
tion which this infusion of patrician blood 
brought to the commoner Jeffersonian stream 
was afterwards slightingly referred to by 
Thomas Jefferson, who said, with a character- 
istic democratic sneer, that his mother's family 
traced '' their pedigree far back in England and 



4 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Scotland, to which let every one ascribe the 
faith and merit he chooses." 

Peter Jefferson's plantation, or more prop- 
erly his farm, for it seems to have been largely 
devoted to the culture of wheat, lay on the 
Rivanna near its junction with the James, in- 
cluding a large extent of plain and some of 
the lower shoulders or spurs of the mountains 
known as the Southwest Range. He named 
it Shadwell, after the parish in London where 
his wife had been born ; among its hills was 
that of Monticello, upon which in after years 
Thomas Jefferson built his house. Peter was 
colonel of his county and a member of the 
House of Burgesses, apparently a man of rising 
note in the colony. But in August, 1757, in 
the fiftieth year of what seemed a singularly 
vigorous life, he suddenly died, leaving Thomas 
only fourteen years old, with the advantages, 
however, of a comfortable property and an 
excellent family connection on the mother's 
side, so that it would be his own fault if he 
should not prosper well in the world. 

Jefferson appears to have been sensibly 
brought up, getting as good an education as 
was possible in Virginia and paying also due 
regard to his physical training. He giew to 
be a slender and sinewy, or as some preferred 
to say, a thin and raw-boned young man, six 



YOUTH. 5 

feet two and one half inches tall, with hair 
variously reported as red, reddish, and s.andy, 
and with eyes mixed of gray and hazel. Cer- 
tainly he was not handsome, and in order to 
establish his social attractiveness his friends fall 
back on " his countenance, so highly expressive 
of intelligence and benevolence," and upon his 
" fluent and sensible conversation " intermingled 
with a "vein of pleasantry." He is said to 
have improved in appearance as he grew older, 
and to have become "a very good-looking man 
in middle age, and quite a handsome old man." ^ 
He was athletic, fond of shooting, and a skilful 
and daring horseman even for a Virginian. 
He early developed a strong taste for music 
and fiddled assiduously for many years. By 
his own desire he entered William and Mary 
College in 1760 at the age ot seventeen. He 
was now secure of every advantage possible for 
a young Virginian. The college was at Wil- 
liamsburg, then the capital of the colony, and 
his relationship with the Randolphs made him 
free of the best houses.^ A Scotch doctor, 

1 Tucker's Life of Jefferson, i. 29. 

^ But one must not draw too glowing a picture of the ad- 
vantage of living in Williamsburg, which in fact was a village 
containing about two hundred houses, " one tliousand souls, 
whites and negroes," and " ten or twelve gentlemen's families 
constantly residing in it, besides merchants and tradesmen." 
Only during the winter session of the legislature it became 



6 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

William Small, was Professor of Mathematics 
and temporarily also of Philosophy. He ap- 
pears to have had a happy gift of instruction, 
and to have fired the mind of his pupil with a 
great zeal for learning. Jefferson afterward 
even said that the presence of this gentleman 
iit the University was " what probably fixed 
the destinies of my life." 

If we may take Jeff'erson's own word for it, he 
habitually studied, during his second collegiate 
year, fifteen hours a day, and for his only ex- 
ercise ran, at twilight, a mile out of the city 
and back again. Long afterward, in 1808, he 
wrote to a grandson a sketch of this period of 
his life, composed in his moral and didactic 
vein ; in it he draws a beautiful picture of bis 
own precocious and unnatural virtue, and is 
himself obliged to gaze in surprise upon one 
so young and yet so good amid crowding temp- 
tations. Without fully sharing in this generous 
admiration, we must not doubt that he was 
sufficiently studious and sensible, for he had a 
natural thirst for information and he always 
afterward appeared a broadly educated man. 
His preference was for mathematics and nat- 
ural philosophy, studies which he deemed " so 
peculiarly engaging and delightful as would 

"crowded with the gentry of the country." See Parton's 
tiife of Jefferson, 20. 



YOUTH. 7 

induce every one to wish an acquaintance with 
them." He was fond also of classics, and in- 
deed eschewed with positive distaste no branch 
of study save only ethics and metaphysics. At 
these he sneered, and actually once had the 
courage to say that it was " lost time " to 
attend lectures on moral philosophy, since " he 
who made us would have been a pitiful bungler 
if he had made the rules of our moral conduct 
a matter of science." Certainly morals never 
became in his mind one of the exact sciences, 
and the heretical notion of his youth remained 
the conviction of his mature years. He appears 
to have read quite extensively, with sound selec- 
tion and liberal taste, among the acknowledged 
classics in Greek, Latin, and English literature, 
and to some extent also in French and Italian. 
But novels he never fancied and rarely touched 
at any period of his life, though not by reason 
of a severe taste, since for a long while he was 
nothing less than infatuated with the bom- 
bast of Ossian. 

After graduation, Jefferson read law in the 
office of George Wythe, a gentleman whose 
genial social qualities and high professional 
attainments are attested by the friendly allu- 
sions of many eminent contemporaries.^ His 

1 John Marshall read law with him, and Henry Clay was 
his private secretary. 



8 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

zeal in labor still continued, and again the 
story is told that he habitually reached the 
measure of fifteen hours of study daily. When 
he was about twenty-one years old, Jefferson 
drew up a phm of study and reading for a young 
friend. Before eight o'clock in the morning 
this poor fellow was to devote himself to " phys- 
ical studies"; eight to twelve o'clock, law; 
twelve to one, politics ; afternoon, history ; 
" dark to bedtime," literature, oratory, etc., etc. 
Yet there were cakes and ale in those days, 
young girls and dancing at the Raleigh tavern, 
cards and horses ; and the young Virginians had 
their full share of all these good things. Prob- 
ably the fifteen hours stint, as a strictly regular 
daily allowance, is fabulous. With Professor 
Small and Mr. Wythe the young student formed 
a " partie quarr^e " at the " palace " of Francis 
Fauquier, then the gay, agreeable, accomplished, 
free-thinking, gambling Governor of Virginia. 
The four habitually dined together in spite of 
the fifteen-hour rule, and it betokens no small 
degree of intellectual maturity on the part of 
Jefferson, that while a mere college lad he was 
the selected companion of three such gentlemen. 
Fortunately his sound common sense protected 
him from the dangerous elements in the asso- 
ciation. 

A few letters written by Jefferson at this 



YOUTH. 9 

time to his friend John Page, a member of the 
well-known Virginian family of that name and 
himself afterward Governor of Virginia, have 
been preserved. Without showing much brill- 
iancy, they abound in labored attempts at 
humor and are thickly sown with fragments 
from the classics and simple bits of original 
Latinity. The chief burden of them all is the 
girls, whose faces, it is to be hoped, were prettier 
than their names, — Sukey Potter, Judy Bur- 
well, and the like. One of them, " Belinda," 
as he called her, he treated in a rather peculiar 
way. He told her that he loved her, but did 
not desire at present to engage himself, since he 
wished to go to Europe for an indefinite period ; 
but he said that on his return, of course with 
unchanged affections, he would finally and 
openly commit himself. To this not very ardent 
proposition the lady naturally said No, and soon 
wedded another. The " laggard in love " wrote 
a despairing letter or two, which fail to bring 
tears to the reader's eyes ; remained in comfort- 
able bachelorliood a few short years, and then 
gave his hand, and doubtless also m all warmth 
and sincerity his heart, to the young widow 
of Bathurst Skelton. His marriage took place 
January 1, 1772. If the accounts of gallant 
chroniclers may be trusted, the bride had every 
q^ualification which can make woman attractive; 



10 THOMAS JEFFERSON. ' 

an exquisite feminine beauty, grace of man- ' 
ners, loveliness of disposition, rare cleverness, 
and many accomplishments. Furthermore, her 
father, John Wayles, a rich lawyer, consider- 
ately died about sixteen months after the mar- 
riage, and so caused a handsome addition to 
Jefferson's property. 

Jefferson, however, had no need to marry for 
money. Though not very rich, he was well off 
and was rapidly multiplying his assets. At the 
time of his marriage he had increased his pat- 
rimony so that 1,900 acres had swelled by pur- 
chases to 5,000 acres, and thirty slaves had 
increased to fifty-two. He was getting consid- 
erably upwards of $3,000 a year from his pro- 
fession,! and $2,000 from his farm. This made 
a very good income in those days in Virginia. 
The evidence is abundant that he was thrifty, 
industrious, and successful. He seemed like one 
destined to accumulate wealth, but he never 
had a fair opportunity to show his capacity in 
this direction, since he maintained a resolve not 
to better his J|)rtunes while in public life. 

His care-., at the bar began in 1767, when he 
was only twenty-four years old, and closed in 
1774. If he had only been getting fairly into 
business when he left the profession, he would 

1 During the seven years that he was in practice his fees 
averaged $3,000 per annum. 



Yourn. 11 

have had little right to complain. But appar- 
ently he had stepped at once into an excellent 
practice, and either the chief occupation of all 
Virginians was litigation, or else he must have 
enjoyed exceptional good fortune. In the first 
year he had sixty eight cases in the "general 
court," in the next year one hundred and fif- 
teen, in the third year one hundred and nine- 
ty-eight. Of causes before inferior tribunals 
no record was kept. Yet Mr. Randall tells us 
that he was chiefly an " ofiice-lawyer," for that 
a husky weakness of the voice prevented him 
from becoming very successful as an advocate. 

The farming, though it contributed the 
smaller fraction of his income, was the calling 
which throughout life he loved with an inborn 
fondness not to be quenched by all the cares 
and interests of a public career, and his note- 
books attest the unresting interest which he 
brought to it in all times and places. A striking 
paper, unfortunately incomplete and undated, 
is published in the first volume of his works. 
" I sometimes ask myself," he writes, " whether 
my country is the better for my* ..^ving lived 
at all. ... I have been the instrument of 
doing the following things." Then are enu- 
merated such matters as the disestablishment 
of the state church in Virginia, the putting an 
end to entails, the prohibition of the importa- 



12 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tion of slaves, also the drafting of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and in the same not very 
long list, cheek by jowl with these momentous 
achievements, follows the importation of olive 
plants from Marseilles into South Carolina and 
Georgia, and of heavy upland rice from Africa 
into the same States, in the hope that it might 
supersede the culture of the wet rice so pesti- 
^ lential in the summer. " The greatest service," 
he comments, '' which can be rendered to any 
country is, to add a useful plant to its culture, 
especially a bread grain ; next in value to bread 
is oil." At another time he wrote: "Those 
who labor in the earth are the chosen people 
of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose 
breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for 
substantial and genuine virtue. . . . Corrup- 
tion of morals in the mass of cultivators is 
a phenomenon of which no age or nation has 
furnished an example. . . . Generally speak- 
ing, the proportion which the aggregate of 
the other classes of citizens bears in any state 
to that of the husbandmen is the proportion 
of its unsound to its healthy parts, and is a 
good enough barometer whereby to measure the 
degree of its corruption." From these prem- 
ises he draws the conclusion that it is an er- 
ror to attract artificers or mechanics from for- 
eign parts into this country. It will be better 



YOUTH. 13 

and more wholesome, he says, to leave them in 
their European workshops and '' carry provisions 
and materials to workmen there, than bring 
them to the provisions and materials, and with 
them their manners and principles." This 
would hardly pass nowadays for sound political 
economy ; but it is an excellent sample of the 
simple impractical form into which Jefferson's 
reflections were apt to develop when the mood 
of dreamy virtue was upon him. During an 
inroad of yellow fever lie found "consolation *' 
in the reflection that Providence had so ordered 
things *' that most evils are the means of pro- 
ducing some good. The yellow fever will divS- 
courage the growth of great cities in our nation, 
and I view great cities as pestilential to the 
morals, the health, and the liberties of man." 
Nor did wider experience of the world cause 
him to change his views. In 1785 he wrote 
from Paris : " Cultivators of the earth are the 
most valuable citizens. They are the most vig- 
orous, the most independent, the most virtuous ; 
and they are tied to their country and wedded 
to its liberty and interests by the most lasting 
bonds. ... I consider the class of artificers as 
the panders of vice, and the instruments by 
which the liberties of a country are generally 
overturned." " Were I to indulge in my own 
theory," he again says, " I should wish them 



14 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

(the States) to practise neither commerce nor 
navigation, but to stand with respect to Europe 
precisely on the footing of China." 

For his own personal part, Jefferson was 
always an enthusiast in agriculture. He was 
never too busy to find time to note the dates of 
the planting and the ripening of his vegetables 
and fruits. He left behind him a table enu- 
merating thirty-seven esculents, and showing 
the earliest date of the appearance of each one 
of them in the Washington market in each of 
eight successive years. He had ever a quick 
observation and a keen intelligence ready for 
every fragment of new knowledge or hint of a 
useful invention in the way of field work. All 
through his busy official life, abroad and at 
home, he appears ceaselessly to have one eye on 
the soil and one ear open to its cultivators ; he 
is always comparing varying methods and re- 
sults, sending new seeds hither and thither, 
making suggestions, trying experiments, till, in 
the presence of his enterprise and activity, one 
begins to think that the stagnating character so 
commonly attributed to the Virginian planters 
must be fabulous. For, on the contrary, so far 
was his temperament removed from the conser- 
vatism of the Anglo-Saxon race that often he 
seemed to take the fact that a thing had never 
been done as a sufficient reason for doing it 



YOUTB. 15 

All his tendencies were utilitarian. Thougb 
strangely devoid of any appreciation of fiction 
in literature, yet be had a powerful imagina- 
tion, which ranged wholly in the unromantic 
domain of the useful, and ran riot in schemes 
for conferring practical benefits on mankind. 
He betrayed the same traits in agriculture and 
in politics. In both he was often a dreamer, 
but his dreams concerned the daily affairs of 
his fellow men, and his life was devoted to re- 
ducing his idealities to realities. It was largely 
this sanguine taste for novelty, this dash of the 
imaginative element, flavoring all his projects 
and doctrines, which made them attractive to 
the multitude, who, finding present facts to be 
for the most part hard and uninviting, are ever 
prone to be pleased with propositions for variety. 
Only once, under the combined influences of 
Ossian, youth, and love, we find his fancy roving 
in a melodramatic direction. He turns then 
for a while from absorbing calculations of the 
amount of work which a man can do with a 
one-wheeled barrow and the amount he can do 
with a two-wheeled barrow, the number and 
cost of the nails required for a certain length of 
paling, the amount of lime, or limestone, re- 
quired for a perch of stone wall, and in place of 
these useful computations he lays plans for 
ornamental work. He will " choose out for a 



16 THOMAH JEFFERSON. 

burying place some unfrequented vale in the 
park," wherein a bubbling brook alone shall 
break the stillness, while around shall be " an- 
cient and venerable oaks " interspersed with 
''gloomy evergreens." In the centre shall be 
a " small gothic temple of antique appearance." 
He will " appropriate one half to the use of his 
family," the other, with an odd manifestation of 
Virginian hospitality, to the use of " strangers," 
servants, etc. There shall be " pedestals, with 
urns and proper inscriptions " and a " pyramid 
of the rough roekstone " over the " grave of a 
favorite and faithful servant." There will be, 
of course, a grotto, " spangled with translucent 
pebbles and beautiful shells," with an ever 
trickling stream, a mossy couch, a figure of a 
sleeping nymph, and appropriate mottoes in 
English and Latin. It is needless to say that 
these idle fancies seem never to have been seri- 
ously taken in hand. More important and 
engrossing work than the preparation of an en- 
ticing grave-yard was forthwith to claim Jeffer- 
«on's attention. 



CHAPTER 11. 

IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 

About the time when he entered college, 
Jefferson made the acquaintance of Patrick 
Henry, then a rather unprosperous, hilarious, 
unknown young countryman, just admitted to 
the bar, though profoundly ignorant of law. 
An intimacy sprang up between them, and 
when Henry became a member of the House 
of Burgesses- he often shared Jefferson's cham- 
bers at Williamsburg. From them he went, in 
May, 1765, to utter that ringing speech against 
taxation without representation which made 
him for a time foremost among Virginian pa- 
triots. In the doorway of the hall stood Jeffer- 
son, an entranced listener, thinking that Henry 
spoke "as Homer wrote." The magnetic influ- 
ence of this brilliant friend would have trans- 
formed a more loyally disposed youth than 
Jefferson into an arrant rebel. But no influ- 
ence was needed for this purpose ; Jefferson 
was by nature a bold and free thinker, want- 
ing rather ballast than canvas. As he watched 
the course of public events in those years when 



18 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tlie germs of the Revolution were swelling and 
quickening in the Lmd, all his sympathies were 
warmly enlisted with the party of resistance. 
By the year 1768, when the advent of a new 
governor made necessary the election of a new 
House of Burgesses, he already craved the op- 
portunity to take an active part in affairs, and 
at once offered himself as a candidate for Albe- 
marle County. He kept open house, distributed 
limitless punch, stood by the polls, politely 
bowing to every voter who named him, all ac- 
cording to the Vii-ginian fashion of the day,^ 
and had the good fortune, by these meritorious 
efforts, to win success. On May 11, 1769, he 
took his seat. Lord Botetourt delivered his 
quasi-royal speech, and Jefferson drew the reso- 
lutions constituting the basis of the repl}^, but 
afterward, being deputed to draw the reply it- 
self, he suffered the serious mortification of hav- 
ing his document rejected. On the third day 
the Burgesses passed another batch of resolu- 
tions, so odiously like a Bill of Rights that the 
Governor, much perturbed in his loyal mind, 
dissolved them at once. The next day they 
eked out this brief term of service by meeting 
in the " Apollo," or long room of the Raleigh 
tavern, where eighty-eight of them, of whom 
Jefferson was one, formed a non-importation 

1 See Pai'ton's description, in \ii^ Life of Jefferson, p. 88. 



IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 19 

league as against British merchandise. All 
the signers of this document were at once re- 
elected by their constituents. 

In March, 1773, the Burgesses again came to- 
gether in no good humor. The destruction of 
the Gaspee in Narragansett Bay had led to a 
draconic act of Parliament whereby any colonist, 
destroymg so much as "the button of a mar- 
mer's coat," might be carried to England for 
trial and punished with death. Upon the as- 
sembling of the Burgesses, Jefferson and some 
five or six others, " not thinking our old and 
leading members up to the point of forwardness 
and zeal which the times required," met pri- 
vately in consultation. The offspring of their 
conference was a standing committee charged 
to correspond with like committees which the 
sister colonies were invited to appoint. An 
idle controversy has arisen as to whether Mas- 
sachusetts or Virginia was first to devise this 
system of correspondence. Jefferson long aft- 
erward averred that Virginia was the earlier, 
and the evidence favors the substantial correct- 
ness of his statement ; for, though Massachusetts 
had suggested the idea some two years before, 
she had not pushed it, and the suggestion, known 
to few, had been forgotten by all. It naturally 
resulted from this proceeding that the Bur- 
gesses were at once dissolved by the Earl of 



20 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Diinmore. But the committee met on the next 
day and issued their circular of invitation. 

A year later, in the spring of 1774, news of 
the Boston Port Bill came while the Burgesses 
were in session. Again Jefferson and some 
half dozen more, feeling that " the lead in the 
House on these subjects [should] no longer be 
left with the old members," and agreeing that 
they '* must boldly take an unequivocal stand 
in the line with Massachusetts," ^ met in secret 
to devise proper measures. They determined to 
appoint a day of fasting and prayer, and in the 
House they succeeded in carrying a resoUition 
to that effect. Again the Governor dissolved 
them ; again they went over to the '' Apollo," 
and again passed there most disloyal resolutions. 
Among these was one requesting the Commit- 
tee of Correspondence to consult the other col- 

1 The march of events, Jefferson afterward wrote, " favored 
the bolder spirits of Henry, the Lees, Pages, Mason, etc., with 
whom I went at all points. Sensible, however, of the impor- 
tance of unanimity among our constituents, although we often 
wished to have gone faster, we slackened our pace that our 
less ardent colleagues might keep up with us; and they on 
their part, ditFering nothing from us in principle, quickened 
their gait somewhat beyond that which their prudence might, 
of itself, have advised, and thus consolidated the phalanx which 
breasted the power of Britain. By this harmony of the bold 
with the cautious, we advanced with our constituents, in un- 
divided mass, and with fewer examjjles of separation than, 
perhaps, existed in any other part of the Union." 



IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 21 

onies on the expediency of holding annually a 
general Congress ; also another, for the meeting 
of representatives from the counties of Virginia 
in convention at Williamsburg on August 1. 
The freeholders of Albemarle elected Jefferson 
again a Burgess, and also a deputy to this Con- 
vention. 

Jefferson started to attend the meeting of 
the Convention, but upon the road was taken 
so ill with a dysentery that he could not go on. 
He therefore forwarded a draft of instructions, 
such as he hoped to see given by that body to 
the delegates whom it was to send to the Gen- 
eral Congress of the colonies. One copy of this 
document was sent to Patrick Henry, who, 
however, "communicated it to nobody;" per- 
haps, says Jefferson, *' because he disapproved 
the ground taken," perhaps " because he was 
too lazy to read it." Another copy was sent 
with better fortune to Peyton Randolph, Presi- 
dent of the Convention. It was laid by him 
upon the table, was read by the members, and 
was so well liked that it was printed in pamphlet 
form under the title of "A Summary View of 
the Rights of British America;" in this shape 
it was sent over to Great Britain, was there 
" taken up by the opposition, interpolated a 
little by Mr. Burke," and then extensively cir- 
culated, running "rapidly through several edi- 
tions." 



22 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Naturally that was the era of manifestoes in 
the colonies, and many pens were busy prepar- 
ing documents, public and private, famous and 
neglected, but nearly all sound, spirited, gen- 
eralizing, and declamatory. Jefferson's instruc- 
tions did not wholly escape the prevalent faults, 
and had their share of rodomontade about the 
rights of freemen and the oppressions of mon- 
archs. But these were slight blemishes in a 
paper singularly radical, audacious, and well 
argued. The migration of the "Saxon ances- 
tors" of the present English people, he said, 
had been made '■'in like manner with that of 
the British immigrants to the American col- 
onies." 

*' Nor was ever any claim of superiority or depend- 
ence asserted over [the English] by that Mother 
Country from which they had migrated ; and were 
such a claim made, it is believed his Majesty's suhjects 
in Great Britain have too firm a feeling of the rights 
derived to them from their ancestors, to bow down the 
sovereignty of their State before such visionary pre- 
tensions. And it is thought that no circumstance has 
occurred to distinguish materially the Bi-itish from 
the Saxon emigration. America was conquered and 
her settlements made and firmly established at the 
expense of individuals, and not of the British public." 

This was laying the axe at the very root of 
the tree with tolerable force ; and more blows 



IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 23 

of the samp sort followed. The connection un- 
deniabl}^ existing between the colonies and the 
mother country was reduced to a minimum by 
an ingenious explanation. The emigrants, Jef- 
ferson said, had " thought proper " to " continue 
their union with England " " by submitting 
themselves to the same sovereign," who was 
a '' central link " or '^ mediatory power " be- 
tween '' the several parts of the Empire," so 
tliat " the relation between Great Britain and 
these colonies was exactly the same as that of 
England and Scotland after the accession of 
James and until the union, and the same as her 
present relations with Hanover, having the same 
executive chief, but no other necessary connec- 
tion." The corollary was " that the British 
Parliament has no right to exercise authority 
over us," and when it endeavored to do so 
" one free and independent legislature " took 
upon itself " to suspend the powers of another, 
free and independent as itself." 

These were revolutionary words, and fell 
short by ever so little of that direct declara- 
tion of independence which they anticipated 
by less than two years. The}^ would have cost 
Jefferson his head had it been less inconvenient 
to bring him to Westminster Hall, and even 
that inconvenience would probably have been 
overcome had forcible opposition been a little 



24 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

longer deferred in the colonies. As it was, the 
{)amphlet " procured him the honor of having 
his name inserted in a long list of proscriptions 
enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced in one 
of the Houses of Parliament, but suppressed in 
embryo by the hasty step of events, which 
warned them to be a little cautious." 

One can hardly be surprised that this Jeffer- 
sonian " leap was too long, as yet, for the mass 
of our citizens," and that "tamer sentiments 
were preferred" by the Convention. Jeffer- 
son himself frankly admitted, many years after- 
ward, that the preference was wise. But his 
colleagues so well liked a boldness somewhat 
in excess of their own, that six months later, in 
view of the chance of Peyton Randolph being 
called away from service in the Colonial Con- 
gress, they elected Jefferson as a deputy to 
fill the vacancy in case it should occur. Not 
many weeks later it did occur. But Jeffer- 
son was detained for a short time in order to 
draw the reply of the Burgesses to the cele- 
brated '' conciliatory proposition," or so called 
'' olive branch," of Lord North. Otherwise it 
was " feared that Mr. Nicholas, whose mind 
was not yet up to the mark of the times," 
would undertake it. On June 10, 1775, the 
Burgesses accepted Jefferson's draft '^ with 
long and doubtful scruples from Nicholas and 



IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 2o 

Mercer," only making some slight amendments 
which Jefferson described as *' throwing a dash 
of cold water on it here and there, enfeebling 
it somewhat." The day after its passage Jef- 
ferson set forth to take his seat in Congress, 
bearing with him the document, which had 
been anxiously expected by that body as be- 
ing the earliest reply from any colony to the 
ministerial proposition. Its closing paragraph 
referred the matter for ultimate action to the 
General Congress. 



CHAPTER III. 

IN CONGRESS. 

Jefferson arrived in Philadelphia on the 
tenth day of his journey, and on June 21 be- 
came one of that assembly concerning which 
Lord Cliatham truly said that its members had 
never been excelled " in solidity of reasoning, 
force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion." 
Jefferson, at the age of thirty-two, was among 
the younger deputies^ in a body which, by the 
aid of Dr. Franklin, aged seventy-one, and Ed- 
ward Rutledge, aged twenty-six, represented 
all the adult generations of tlie country. He 
brought with him a considerable reputation as 
a ready and eloquent writer, and was justly ex- 
pected, by his counsel, his pen, and his vote, to 
bring substantial reinforcement to the more ad- 
vanced party. In debate, however, not much 
was to be anticipated from him, for he was 
never able to talk even moderately well in a 
deliberative body. Not only was his poor 

^ Not, as he himself wiih wonted inaccuracy says, " the 
youngest man but one ; " for besides Edward Rutledge, born iu 
1749, there was also John Jav, born iu 1745. 



IN CONGRESS. 27 

voice an impediment, but he was a man who 
instinctively abhorred contest. Daringly as 
he wrote, yet he shrank from that contention 
which pitted him face to face against another, 
thougli the only weapons were the " winged 
words " of parliamentary argumentation. Tur- 
moil and confusion he detested ; amid wrang- 
ling and disputing he preferred to be silent ; 
it was in conversation, in the committee-room, 
and preeminently when he had pen, ink, and 
paper before him, that he amply justified his 
presence among the three-score chosen ones of 
the thirteen colonies. In his appropriate de- 
partment he quickly superseded Jay as docu- 
ment-writer to Congress. 

Yet his first endeavor did not point to this 
distinction. When news of the fight at Bun- 
ker's Hill arrived in Philadelphia, Congress felt 
obliged to publish a manifesto setting before 
the world the justification of this now bloody 
rebellion. Jefferson, as a member of the com- 
mittee, undertook to draw the paper ; but he 
made it much too vigorous for the conciliatory 
and anxious temper of Dickinson ; so that 
partly out of regard for this courteous and popu- 
lar gentleman, partly from a politic desire not 
to outsti'ip too far the slower ranks, Jefferson's 
sheets were submitted to Dickinson himself for 
revision. Not content with modification, that 



28 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

reluctant patriot prepared an entire substitute 
which was reported and accepted. But its 
closing four and one half clauses were borrowed 
from the draft of Jefferson, whose admirers 
think that these alone save the docu^"ient 
from being altogether feeble and inadequate. 
Among them were the following significant 
words : " We mean not to dissolve that union 
which has so long and so happily subsisted be- 
tween us, and which we sincerely wish to see 
restored. Necessity has not yet [note the preg- 
nant word] driven us into that desperate meas- 
ure." 1 

A month afterward Jefferson had better luck 
with his composition. He was second on the 
committee — of which the members were chosen 
by ballot and took rank according to the num- 
ber of votes received by them respectively — 
deputed to draw the reply of Congress to Lord 
North's '' conciliatory proposition." He based 
his paper on the reply already drawn by him 

1 The authorship of these closing paragraphs has br 
denied to Jefforson and attributed to Dickinson. But 
evidence would establish only a small measure of proba 
ity in favor of Dickinson, if it stood wliolly uncontradict< i 
and it utterly fails to meet and control Jefferson's direct as? i 
tion, made in his Autobiography, p. 11 , that these words ^^ 
retained from his own draft. The juixiety to claim them .. 
Dickinson shows the comparative estimation in which t v 
are held. See Magazine of Amer. lliat.. viii. 514. 



IN CONGRESS. 29 

for the Virginian Burgesses, and was gratified 
by seeing it readily accepted. A few days later 
Congress adjourned, and Jefferson resumed his 
seat and duties in the State Convention, by 
which he was at once reelected to Congress, 
thii time standing third on the list of dele- 
gates. 

Much time has been wasted in idle efforts to 
determine precisely when and by whom the 
idea of separation and consequent independence 
of the provinces was first broached before the 
Colonial Congress, The inquiry is useless for 
many reasons, but conclusively so because all 
the evidence which the world is ever likely to 
see has been already adduced and has not suf- 
ficed to remove the question out of the domain 
of discussion. The truth is that while no in- 
telligent man could help contemplating this 
probable conclusion, all deprecated it, many 
with more of anxiety than resolution, but not 
a few with a more daring spirit. In varying 
moods even the same individual might have 
different feelings. In his habitual frame of 
mind Jefferson thought separation to be daily 
approaching, and in the near presence of so 
momentous an event he was so far grave and 
dubious as to express a strong disinclination for 
it, though avowedly preferring it with all its 
possible train of woes to a continuance of the 



80 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

present oppression. He was too tboughtful not 
to be a reluctant revolutionist, but for tbe same 
reason be was sure to be a determined one. 
His relative, Jobn Randolpb, Attorney-General 
of tbe colony, was a loyalist, and in tbe sum- 
mer of 1775 was about to remove to England. 
Jefferson wrote to bim a friendly, serious letter, 
suggesting some considerations wbicb be boped 
tbat Randolpb migbt bave opportunity to lay 
before tbe Englisb government, advantageously 
for botb parties. He deprecates tbe present 
" contention " and tbe " continuance of confu- 
sion," wbicb for bim constitute, '* of all states 
hut one., tbe most borrid." He says tbat Eng- 
land 

" would be certainly unwise, by trying the event 
of another campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign 
aid, which perhaps may not be obtainable but on con- 
dition of everlasting avulsion from Great Britain. 
This would be thought a hard condition to those who 
still wish for a re-union with their parent country. I 
am sincerely one of those, and would rather be in de- 
pendence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on 
any other nation on earth, or than on no nation. But 
I am one of those, too, who, rather than submit to the 
rights of legislating for us assumed by the British 
Parliament, and which late experience has shown 
they will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to 
sink the whole island in the ocean." 



IN CONGRESS. 31 

This was written August 25, 1775 ; three 
months later he wrote, with a perceptible in- 
crease of feeling ; — 

" It is an immense misfortune to the whole empire 
to have a king of such a disposition at such a time. 
... In an earlier part of this contest our petitions 
told him that from our King there was but one appeal. 
The admonition was despised and that appeal forced 
on us. To undo his empire, he has but one truth 
more to learn, — that, after colonies have drawn the 
sword, there is but one step more they can take. 
That step is now pressed upon us by the measures 
adopted, as if they were afraid we would not take it. 
Believe me, dear sir, there is not in the British Em- 
pire a man who more cordially loves a union with 
Great Britain than I do. But by the God that made 
T"^, T will cease to exist before I yield to a connection 
ii^h terms as the British Parliament propose; and 
; I think I speak the sentiments of America, 
ant neither inducement nor power to declare 
isert a separation. It is will alone that is 
g, and that is growing apace under the fostering 
i our King. One bloody campaign will prob- 
cide, everlastingly, our future course ; and I 
y to find a bloody campaign is decided on." 

16 autumn of 1775 Jefferson was again 
ng Congress in Philadelphia ; early in 
e came home ; but on May 13, 1776, he 
k in his seat as a delegate from the Col- 
ony, soon to be the State, of Virginia. Events, 



32 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

which ten years ago had begun a sort of glacial 
movement, slow and powerful, were now advan- 
cinsc fast. On this side of the Atlantic, Thomas 
Paine had sent " Common Sense " abroad among 
the people, and had stirred them profoundl}^ 
Since the bloodshed at Lexington and Charles- 
town, Falmouth had been burned, Norfolk bom- 
barded, and General Washington, concluding 
triumphantly the leaguer around Boston, w^as 
as open and efficient an enemy of England as if 
he had been a Frenchman or a Spaniard. It 
was time to transmute him from a rebel into a 
foreigner. Nor had the members of Congress 
any chance of escaping the hangman's rope un- 
less this alteration could be accomplished for all 
the colonists. For all prominent men, alike in 
military and in civil hfe, it was now independ- 
ence or destruction. Virginia instructed her 
delegates to move that Congress should declare 
'' the United Colonies, free and independent 
States," and on June 7 Richard Henry Lee 
offered resolutions accordingly. In debate upon 
these on June 8 and 10 it appeared, says Jef- 
ferson, that certain of the colonies " were not 
yet matured for falling from the parent stem, 
but that they were fast advancing to that state." 
To give the laggards time to catch up with 
the vanguard, further discussion was postponed 
until July 1. But to prevent loss of time, when 



IN CONGRESS. 33 

debate should be resumed. Congress on June 11 
appointed a committee charged to prepare a 
Declaration of Independence, so that it might 
be ready at once when it should be wanted. 
The members, in the order of choice by ballot, 
were : Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Ben- 
jamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. 
Livingston. 

For the last hundred years one of the first 
facts taught to any child of American birth is, 
that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. The original draft in his handwrit- 
ing was afterward deposited in the State De- 
partment. It shows two or three trifling 
alterations, interlined in the handwritings of 
Franklin and Adams. Otherwise it came be- 
fore Congress precisely as Jefferson wrote it. 
Many years afterward John Adams gave an ac- 
count of the way in w^^^i]fcJ-effei:soii came to be 
the composer of 
fering slightly fr 
But the variancj 
than any experi( 
find between the feslTi^eny 
nesses to any transaction, especially^ when given 
after the lapse of many years, and when one at 
least had no memoranda for refreshing his 
memory. Jefferson's statement seems the bet- 
ter entitled to credit, and what little corrobora- 

3 




34 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tion is to be obtained for either narrator is 
wliolly in his favor. He says simply that when 
the Committee came together he was pressed 
by his colleagues unanimously to undertake the 
draft ; that he did so ; that, when he had pre- 
pared it, he submitted it to Dr. Franklin and 
Mr. Adams, separately, requesting their correc- 
tions, " which were two or three only and 
merely verbal," " interlined in their own hand- 
writings ; " that the report in this shape was 
adopted by the committee, and a " fair cop}^," 
written out by Mr. Jefferson, was then laid be- 
fore Congress. 

A somewhat more interesting discussion con- 
cerns the question, how Jefferson came to be 
named first on the committee, to the entire ex- 
clusion of Lee, to whom, as mover of the reso^ 
lution, parliamentary etiquette would have as- 
signed the chairmanship. Maf^iy explanations 
have been given, of which some at least appear 
the outgrowth of personal likings and dislik- 
ings. It is certain that Jefferson was not onl} 
preeminent!}^ fitted for the very difficult task 
of this peculiar composition, but also that he 
was a man without an enemy. His abstinence 
from any active share in debate had saved him 
from giving irritation; and it is a truth not to 
be concealed, that there were cabals, bickerings, 
heart-burninp-a. nerhaps actual enmities among 



IN COXGRESS. 

the members of that famous body, which, 
grandly as it looms up, and rightly too, in the 
mind's eye, was after all composed of jarring 
human ingredients. It was well believed that 
there was a faction opposed to Washington, 
and it was generally suspected that irascible, 
vain, and jealous John Adams, then jiist rising 
from the ranks of the people, made in this mat- 
ter common cause with the aristocratic Virginian 
Lees against their fellow-countryman. Adams 
frankly says that he himself was very unpopu- 
lar ; and therefore it did not help Lee to be his 
friend. Furthermore, the anti-Washingtonians 
were rather a clique or faction than a party, 
and were greatly outnumbered. Jay, too, had 
his little private pique against Lee. So it is 
likely enough that a timely illness of Lee's wife 
was a fortunate excuse for passing him by, and 
that partly by reason of admitted aptitude, 
partly because no risk could be run of any in- 
terference of personal feelings in so weighty a 
matter, Jefferson was placed first on the com- 
mittee with the natural result of doing the bulk 
of its labor. 

On July 1, pursuant to assignment, Congress, 
in committee of the whole, resumed consider- 
ation of Mr. Lee's resolution, and carried it by 
the votes of nine colonies. South Carolina and 
Pennsylvania voted against it. The two dele- 



i THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

gates from Delaware were divided. Those 
from New York said that personally they were 
in favor of it and believed their constituents to 
be so, but they were hampered by instructions 
drawn a twelvemonth since and strictly forbid- 
ding any action obstructive of reconciliation, 
which was then still desired. The committee 
reported, and then Edward Rutledge moved an 
adjournment to the next day, when his col- 
leagues, though disapproving the resolution, 
would probably join in it for the sake of unan- 
imity. This motion was carried, and on the day 
followinoj the South Carolinians were found to be 
converted ; also a third member '' had come post 
from the Delaware counties " and caused the 
vote of that colony to be given with the rest ; 
Pennsylvania changed her vote ; and a few days 
later the Convention of New York approved 
the resolution, " thus supplying the void occa- 
sioned by the withdrawing of her delegates 
from the vote." 

On the same day, July 2, the House took 
up Mr. Jefferson's draft of the Declaration, 
and debated it during that and the following 
day and until a late hour on July 4. Many 
verbal changes were made, most of which were 
conducive to closer accuracy of statement, and 
were improvements. Two or three substan- 
tial amendments were made by the omission 



IN CONGRESS. 37 

of passages : notably there was stricken out a 
passage in which George III. was denounced for 
eiicouracrinac the slave-trade. It w^as thouocht 
disingenuous to attack him for tolerating a 
traffic conducted by Northern ship-owners and 
sustained b}^ Southern purchasers, though it was 
ti'ue that sundry attempts of the Southern colo- 
nies to check it by legislation had been brought 
to naught by the king's refusal or neglect to 
ratify the enactments. Congress also struck 
out the passage in which Jefferson declared that 
the hiring of foreign mercenaries by the English 
must "bid us renounce forever these unfeeling 
brethren," and cause us to " endeavor to forget 
our former love for them, and hold them as 
we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, 
in peace friends." It was thought better to say 
nothing which could be construed as an animad- 
version on the English people. No interpolation 
of any consequence was made. 

Jefferson had ample cause to congratulate 
himself upon this event of the discussion. While 
it was in progress and his paper was undergoing 

arp criticism during nearly three days, he felt 

• r from cheerful. He himself spoke not a 

'}. ord in the debate, partly, perhaps, from a sense 

*jf incapacity to hold his own in so strenuous a 

tntest of tongues, but also deeming it a '' duty 

• be ... a passive auditor of the opinions of 



38 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

others, more impartial judges." Dr. Frankllii 
sat by him, and, seeing him '' writhing a little 
under the acrimonious criticisms on some of its 
parts," told him, " by way of comfort," the 
since famous story of the sign of John Thomp- 
son, the hatter. The burden of argument, from 
which Jefferson wisely shrank, was gallantly 
borne by John Adams, whom Jefferson grate- 
fully called '^ the colossus of that debate." 
Jefferson used afterward to take pleasure in 
tingeing the re;d solemnit}^ of the occasion with 
a coloring of the ludicrous. The debate, he 
said, seemed as though it might run on inter- 
minably and probably would have done so at a 
different season of the year. But the weather 
was oppressively warm and the room occupied 
by the deputies was hard by a stable, whence 
the hungry flies swarmed thick and fierce, 
alighting on the legs of the delegates and biting 
hard through their thin silk stockings. Treason 
was preferable to discomfort, and the members 
voted for the Declaration and hastened to the 
table to sign it and escape from the horse-fly. 
John Hancock, making his great familiar signa- 
ture, jestingly said that John Bull could read 
that without spectacles ; then, becoming more 
serious, began to impress on his comrades the 
necessity of their " all hanging together in this 
matter." " Yes, indeed," interrupted Franklin, 



IN CONGRESS. 39 

" we must all hang together, or assuredly we 
shall all hang separately." " When it comes 
to the hanging," said Harrison, the '' luxurious 
heavy gentleman " from Virginia, to the little 
meagre Gerry of Massachusetts, " I shall have 
the advantage of you ; it will be all over with 
me, long before you have done kicking in the 
air." Amid such trifling, concealing grave 
thoughts, Jefferson saw his momentous docu- 
ment signed at the close of that summer after- 
noon ; he had acted as undertaker for tlie royal 
colonies and as midwife for the United States 
of America. 

It is a work of supererogation to criticise a 
paper with which fifty millions of people are to* 
day as familiar as with the Lord's Prayer. The 
faults which it has are chiefly of style and are 
due to the spirit of those times, a spirit bold, 
energetic, sensible, independent, in action the 
very best but in talk and writing much too 
tolerant of broad and high sounding generaliza- 
tion. John Adams and Pickering long after- 
ward, when they had come to hate Jefferson as 
a sort of political arch-fiend, blamed it for lack 
of originality. Every idea in it, they said, had 
become '' hackneyed " and was to be found in 
half a dozen earlier expressions of public opin- 
ion. The assertion was equally true, absurd, 
and malicious. No intelligent man could sup- 



40 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

pose that the Americans had been concerned in 
a rebellious discussion for years, and engaged in 
actual war for months, without having fully 
comprehended the principles, the causes, and 
the justification on which their conduct was 
based. It was preposterous to demand new dis- 
coveries in these particulars. Had such been 
possible, they would have been undesirable; 
it would have been extreme folly for Jefferson 
to open new and unsettling discussions at this 
late date. Of this charge against his produc- 
tion Jefferson said, with perfect wisdom and fair- 
ness, " I did not consider it as any part of my 
charge to invent new ideas altogether and to of- 
fer no sentiment which had ever been expressed 
before." 

The statement that all men are created 
''equal" has been declared liable to miscon- 
struction ; but no intelligent man has ever mis- 
construed it, unless intentionally. So the crit- 
icism may be disregarded as trivial. Professor 
Tucker justly remarks. of the whole paper that 
it is " consecrated in the affections of Ameri- 
cans, and praise may seem as superfluous as 
censure would be unavailing." 



CHAPTER IV. 

.. \ m THE HOUSE OF BUEGESSES. 

JEx'FEKSON was reelected to Congress on 
' line. 20. 1T76, but declined to serve. At the 
ti:ro hs, >7-i^ned as his reason ''the situation 
of tic affairs " and " private causes," 

into wir.ch ^^ the delicacy of the House would 
not roqniie him to enter minutely." Many 
ye. :ifterward he declared a different motive : 
" "\\ lien i left Congress, in 1776, it was in the 
persn ision that our whole code must be re- 
viewed and adapted to our republican form of 
government, and now that we had no negative 
of councils, governors, and kings, to restrain us 
from doing right, that it should be corrected 
in all its parts, with a single eye to reason and 
the good sense of those for whose government 
it was framed." " I knew that our legislation, 
under the regal government, had many very vi- 
cious points which urgently required reforma- 
tion, and I thought I could be of more use in for- 
warding that work." 

The ex-colonies reorganized themselves in the 
shape of independent states very readily. On 



42 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

August 13, 1777, Jefferson wrote to Frariklin 
that, " with respect to the State of Virginia . . , 
the people seemed to have laid aside the mon- 
archical, and taken up the republican, govern- 
ment with as much ease as would ha\e at- 
tended their throwing off an old and puttiag on 
a new suit of clothes. We are at present vx ^h(^ 
complete and quiet exercise of well-org-mized 
government." Times which made this trans- 
figuration so easy were naturally ripe for other 
changes also. It was the era of revolution, of 
destruction and re-creation, in orderly fashion 
to be sure, so far as possible ; but still the tem- 
per of the hour was favorable for a general 
revision of all the established laws and forms 
of society. The people were like a ploughed 
field in which the political sower might scatter 
broadcast new ideas and innovating doctrines 
with fair hope of an early harvest. Jefferson, 
reformer and radical by nature, instinctively 
knew his opportunity and went forth zealously 
to this task. Certainly he cast strong and 
wholesome seed, and with liberal hand, into 
the ready social furrows around him. Much 
of his planting struck root at once ; much more 
lay in the ground for a long period, so that it 
was ten years before some of the bills intro- 
duced by him during the two years of his ser- 
vice were actually passed into laws; only a 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 43 

little unfortunately never fructified. The re- 
sults of his labor changed not only the sur- 
face but the fundamental strata of the social 
and economical system of Virginia. Of course 
he did not accomplish so much without assist- 
ance. George Mason, George Wythe, and Mad- 
ison, then a "' new member and young," were 
efficient coadjutors. But they were coadjutors 
and lieutenants only ; Jefferson was the princi- 
pal and the leader. 

On October 7, 1776, he took his seat in the 
House of Delegates and at once was placed on 
many committees. On October 11 he obtained 
leave to bring in a bill establishing Courts of 
Justice throughout the new State. On the next 
day he obtained leave to bring in a bill to en- 
able tenants in tail to convey entailed property 
in fee simple. Two days later he reported a 
bill doing away with the whole system of en- 
tail. It was an audacious move. From gener- 
ation to generation lands and slaves -— almost 
the only valuable kind of property in Virginia 
— had been handed down protected against 
creditors, even against the very extravagance 
of spendthrift owners ; and it was largely by 
this means that the quasi-nobility of the colony 
had succeeded in establishing and maintaining 
itself. A great groan seemed to go up from 
all respectable society at the terrible suggestion 



44 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

of Jefferson, a suggestion daringly cast before 
an Assembly thickly sprinkled with influential 
delegates strongly bound by family ties and 
self-interest to defend the present system. Rec- 
ords of the times fail to explain the sudden and 
surprising success of a reform, which there was 
every reason to suppose could be carried through 
only very slowly and by desperate contests ; we 
know little more than the strange fact that the 
whole system of entail in Virginia crashed to 
pieces almost literally in a day, carrying with 
it an "aristocracy" somewhat brummagem, but 
the only one which has ever existed in the terri- 
tory now of the United States. 

The cognate principle of primogeniture fol- 
lowed, assailed by the same vigorous hand. At 
least, implored Pendleton, if the eldest son may 
no longer inherit all the lands and the slaves of 
his father, let him take a doable share. No, 
said Jefferson, the leveller, not till he can eat 
a double allowance of food and do a double al- 
lowance of work. So an equal distribution of 
property was established among the children of 
intestates ; and though by will any one might 
still prefer an eldest son, yet the effect of the 
law upon public opinion was so great that all 
distinctions of this kind rapidly faded away. 

Tims was a great social revolution wrought 
in a few months by one man. In his grandiose, 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 45 

humanitarian, self-laudatory vein, Jefferson aft- 
erward wrote that his purpose was, '' instead of 
an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and 
danger than benefit to society, to make an open- 
ing for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, 
which nature has wisely provided for the direc- 
tion of the interests of society, and scattered 
with equal hand through all its conditions." 
But his brilliant triumph cost him a price. 
That distinguished class, whose existence as a 
social caste had been forever destroyed, reviled 
the destroyer from this time forth wdth relent- 
less animosity ; and, even to the second and 
third generations, the descendants of many of 
these patrician families vindictively cursed the 
statesman who had placed them on a level with 
the rest of their countrymen. 

Jefferson's next important assault was upon 
the Established Church. Jefferson's rehgious 
views have given no small trouble to his biog- 
raphers, who have been at much pains to make 
him out a sound Christian in the teeth of many 
charges of free-thinking. There is little evi- 
dence to show what his belief was at this period 
of his life. Certainly he did not flout or openly 
reject Christianity; not improbably he had a 
liberal tolerance for its tenets rather than any 
profound faith in them. On August 10, 1787, 
in a letter of advice to his young ward, Peter 



46 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Carr, he dwelt upon religion at much length, 
telling Carr to examine the question independ- 
ently. He added instructions so colorless that 
they resemble the charge of a painfully impar- 
tial judge to a jury. But in this especial mat- 
ter labored impartiality usually signifies a nega- 
tive prejudice. At least Jefferson showed that 
he did not regard Christianity as so established 
a truth that it was to be asserted dogmatically, 
and though he so carefully seeks to conceal his 
own bias, yet one instinctively feels that this 
letter was not written by a believer. Had he 
believed^ in the proper sense of the word, he 
would have been unable to place a very young 
man midway between the two doors of belief 
and unbelief, setting both wide open, and fur- 
nishing no indication as to which led to error. 
Yet as any inference may possibly be wrong, it 
is perhaps safer to admit that the problem of 
his present faith or unfaith is not surely soluble, 
and to rest content with saying — what alone 
is now necessary — that he certainly viewed 
with just abhorrence the mediaeval condition of 
religious legislation in Virginia in 1777. 

He set about the task of clearing away this 
dead wood no less vigorously and extensively 
than he had hewed at the obstructive social 
timbers. But, strange to say, the apparently 
sapless limbs gave the stouter resistance. He 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 47 

aimed at complete religious freedom, substan- 
tially such as now exists throughout the United 
States ; but he was able only to induce a legis- 
lature, in which churchmen largely predomi- 
nated, to take some initial steps in that direction. 
Yet the impetus which he gave, refreshed by 
others during a few succeeding years, at last 
brought the law-makers to the goal, so that in 
1786 the full length of his reform was reached 
and his original " bill for establishing religious 
freedom " was passed, with immaterial amend- 
ments. 

Here again it is to be said that Jefferson was 
in that position in which alone he ever won 
success ; he was the mouthpiece of multitudes 
too numerous not to be heard, the leader of a 
popular movement too massive to be obstructed. 
The majority of citizens were dissenters from 
the established Episcopal Church, and were re- 
solved no longer to contribute of their funds for 
its support. Jefferson says that " the first re- 
publican legislature . . . was crowded with pe- 
titions to abolish this spiritual tyranny." This 
fact gave him the strength that he needed. He 
only required, but he always did require, that 
confidence and inspiration which came to him 
from the sense of having at his back largely su- 
perior numbers : it mattered not that they were 
ignorant, so that they were much the greater 



48 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

number. It is impossible to imagine Jefferson 
combating a popular error, controlling a mis- 
taken people, encountering a great clamor of 
the masses. From these earliest days of his 
public career we find him always moving and 
feeling with the huge multitude, catching with 
sensitive ear the deep mutterings of its will, 
long before the inarticulate sound was intelli- 
gible to others in high places, encouraged by its 
later and hoarser outcry, gathering his force and 
power from its presence, his incentive and per- 
sistence from its laudation. 

Almost immediately after taking his seat 
among the delegates, Jefferson had been placed 
at the head of a committee of five, charged with 
the general revision of all the laws of Virginia. 
It was an enormous task, of which he did much 
more than his just share. Some of the legisla- 
tion referred to in the preceding pages found 
its place in the report of this committee. Other 
important matters, also included in the same re- 
port, can only be mentioned. The seat of gov- 
ernment was removed from the commercial 
metropolis of Williamsburg to the small but 
central village of Richmond. The like princi- 
ple has since prevailed in the selection of much 
the largest proportion of our state capitals. A 
bill for promoting the prompt naturalization of 
foreigners gave form to the subsequent practice 



J GAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 49 

of the country in this matter, and was only 
bhimeworth}'- because it failed to protect a large 
and easy admission by any checks of fitness in the 
Wiiy of knowledge and intelligence. Like much 
of Jefferson's work it was too democratic, as if all 
men must be fit for all things ; also, like some 
of his work, it was not justified by his own 
principles declared at other times when his 
thoughts happened to be taking a different 
direction. A code of punishment for crime was 
drawn up, which was a vast improvement upon 
the merciless severity of preceding laws, but 
which retained to an unjustifiable extent and 
against the wishes of Jefferson the principle of 
retaliation. An elaborate school system was also 
devised ; but the narrow prejudice of the rich 
planters prevented it from ever being fully 
adopted and properly set in working order. 

As has been intimated, this mass of legisla- 
tion, of which only the more prominent portions 
have been mentioned, was not all enacted dur- 
ing the two years of Jefferson's presence in the 
House of Delegates. Much of it, notably in 
the criminal department, lay untouched for a 
long time ; but the laws reported by Jefferson 
formed a sort of reservoir from which the Leg- 
islature drew from time to time, during many 
following years, so much as they had leisure or 
inclination to use. It was not until the close 
4 



50 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of the Revolutionary War that leisure was found 
really to finish the whole business. But when 
at last the end was reached, few serious altera- 
tions had been made ; and though it would be 
an exaggeration to assert that by 1786-87 the 
statute-book of Virginia had become a Jeffer- 
sonian code, yet it is within the truth to say 
that the impress of his mind was in every part 
of the volume, and that especially the social 
legislation was due chiefly to his influence. 

Only in one grave matter — gravest, indeed, 
of all — he and a few humane and noble co- 
adjutors encountered an utter defeat, which cost 
Virginia a great price of retribution in years 
thereafter. This concerned negro slavery. 
Though Jefferson did not, like his friend 
Wythe, emancipate his own slaves, yet from his 
early years he had been strongly opposed to 
slavery, as were many of the best and wisest 
Virginians of that day. Now the committee of 
revisers, pondering deeply on this difficult prob- 
lem, and having it very much in their hearts to 
cleanse their State from a malady which they 
foresaw must otherwise prove fatal, contented 
themselves in the first instance with returning 
in their report a " mere digest of the existing 
laws . . . without any intimation of a plan for 
a future and general emancipation. It was 
thought better that this should be kept back, 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 51 

and attempted only by way of amendment, 
whenever the bill should be brought on. The 
principles of the amendment, however, were 
agreed on, that is to say, the freedom of all born 
after a certain day, and deportation at a proper 
age." But all this strategy was of no avail. 
'• It was found that the public mind would not 
yet bear the proposition, nor will it bear it even 
to this day ; yet," continues Jefferson, writing 
in his autobiography in 1821, " the day is not 
distant when it must bear and adopt it, or worse 
will follow. Notliing is more certainly written 
in the book of fate than that these people are 
to be free." How fortunate had it been for 
Virginia could she have been persuaded by 
the words spoken by her son, wise beyond his 
time, and by his fellow prophets in this great 
cause. 

Yet when one examines Jefferson's scheme 
in its details, its primordial destiny of failure 
becomes at once evident. His project was as 
follows: — All negroes born of slave parents 
after the passing of the act were to be free, but 
to a certain age were to remain with their par' 
ents, and were "then to be brought up at the 
public expense to tillage, arts, or sciences, 
according to their geniuses, till the females 
should be eighteen and the males twenty-one 
years of age, when they should be colonized to 



62 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

such place as the circumstances of the time 
should render most proper, sending thera out 
with arms, implements of household and of the 
handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the useful domes- 
tic animals, etc." The United States were 
then " to declare them a free and independent 
people, and extend to them our alliance and 
protection, till they have acquired strength ; and 
to send vessels at the same time to other parts 
of the world for an equal number of white in- 
habitants, to induce whom to migrate hither 
proper encouragements were to be proposed." 

In the notion that such a costly and elabo- 
rate scheme might be carried into effect we get 
a manifestation of the most dangerous weakness 
of Jefferson's mind. His visionary tendency 
would thus often get the better of his shrewder 
sense, and the line of demarcation between the 
practicable and the impracticable w^ould then 
become shadowy or wholly obliterated for him. 
In palliation it can only be remembered that he 
lived in an age of social and political theorizing, 
and that he was a man eminently characteristic 
of his era, sensitive to its influences and broadly 
reflecting its blunders not less than its wisdom. 

Probably even at this early date the slavery 
problem had become insoluble. Certainly Jef- 
ferson's opinions concerning the two races in 
their possible relations towards each other ren- 



AGAIN IN THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES. 53 

dered it insoluble by him. His observation 
had thoroughly convinced him of a truth, which 
all Avhite men always have believed and prob- 
ably always will believe in the private depths 
of their hearts, that: the negro is inferior to the 
white in mental capacity. He also felt sure 
that " the two races, equally free, cannot live 
in the same government." The attempt, he 
predicted, would " divide Virginians into parties 
and produce convulsions which would probably 
never end but in the extermination of the one 
or the other race." Perhaps in this he was 
wrong. Yet holding these two firm convictions 
it is impossible to see what better plan he could 
have adopted than that which he did adopt, 
impossible though it was of execution. At 
least his prescience of a condition of things at 
which, as he said, " human nature must shud- 
der," proves his social and political foresight. 
One practical measure he did carry. Vir- 
ginia, while still a colony, had made many 
efforts, rendered futile by royal obstruction, to 
stop the importation of slaves. In 1778, "in 
the very first session held under the republican 
government," Jefferson introduced a bill for 
this purpose which was readily passed without 
opposition. With this he was much and justly 
pleased, saying, " it will in some measure stop 
the increase of this great political and moral 



54 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

evil, while the minds of our citizens may be 
ripening for a complete emancipation of human 
nature." What he meant by this vague and 
absurd phrase, so characteristic of his habits of 
expression, it is not easy to say, and for the 
moment one almost forgets the high deserts of 
the reformer in irritation at his chatter about 
" the complete emancipation of human nature." 



CHAPTER V. 

GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 

Patrick Henry, first Governor of the inde- 
pendent State of Virginia, served, by reelections, 
three successive years, and was then, by the 
constitution, ineligible for another term. In 
January, 1779, the Legislature chose Jefferson 
to succeed him on the following Jane 1. The 
honor was not greatly to be coveted, yet Jeffer- 
son found a competitor for it in the friend of 
his youth, John Page, over whom he triumphed 
by a very few votes. The old good feeling be- 
tween the two contestants was very creditably 
preserved throughout the political campaign, 
and perhaps by the time Jefferson left office he 
would have been glad if Page had been the suc- 
cessful candidate, and Page might rejoice at the 
opposite conclusion. For in this chapter of 
Jefferson's life the task of his biographers has 
been, to encounter the widespread impression 
that his administration was disgracefully inef- 
ficient. Mr. Randall especially has discussed this 
matter elaborately, and his facts and arguments, 
when rescued dripping from the sea of rhetoric 



66 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and fine writing in which he nearly drowns 
them, appear to establish a satisf actor}' defence. 
Yet a man in public life does not achieve a 
complete success when he can be defended 
against charges of gross incompetency ; and the 
negative assertion that Jefferson did not make a 
bad governor is by no means equivalent to the 
positive commendation that he made a really 
good one. The truth is, that lie was not fitted 
to be a *' war-governor," and though he did as 
well as he could, he did not do so well as some 
others might have done. 

Until very nearly the close of Henry's third 
term, Virginia had enjoyed a happy immunity 
from invasion. Otherwise, however, she had 
borne her full share of patriotic burdens, and it 
may be imagined that the willing steed, spurred 
for three years by so hard a rider as Henry, 
was somewhat breathless and exhausted when 
he left the saddle. So, indeed, Jefferson found 
it. Men, horses, and food, Virginia had lavishly 
given ; also arms and money, so far as she had 
been able. At last the point was close at hand 
at which further contributions involved such 
severe suffering that they must inevitably come 
slowly and reluctantly. Nevertheless Jeffer- 
son's sole business was to keep the stream still 
flowing and replenished. At first he was able 
to do surprisingly well. When he called for re- 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 57 

emits for Greene's army in the CaroHnas, many 
farmers came gallantly forward from the al- 
ready sorely depleted fields. By September, 
1780, there were not muskets for the men who 
were willing to march ; neither a shilling in 
the treasury ; wagons and horses could be had 
only by impressment, a hazardous pressure to 
put npon a people fighting for freedom. But it 
was inevitable, and it was applied to all alike ; 
a wagon, a pair of horses, and two negro drivers 
were taken from Governor Jefferson's own farm. 
A month later he liopes the new levies ''will be 
all shod," and cannot say '^ what proportion 
will have blankets," though he is purchasing 
" every one which can be found out ; there is a 
prospect of furnishing about half of them with 
tents." 

It was a cruel blow, soon after, to learn tliat 
a large proportion of these scarce and valuable 
supplies were destroyed or captured, and that 
Cornwallis, with his face set northward, was 
leading a victorious army towards Virginia. It 
was an almost miraculous good fortune which 
checked his march a short distance from the 
border. But in the moment of apprehension 
Jefferson was bitterly blamed for having use- 
lessly expended Virginian resources in Carolina. 
The accusation was grossly unjust. The Gov- 
ernor had been perfectly right in sending all 



58 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the men and supplies he could muster to the 
places where the fighting was going forward. 
How else was the war to be maintained? What 
better course could be devised, not only for 
securing a general and ultimate success but also 
for keeping actual war at a distance from Vir- 
ginia ? The blunder would have been to send 
meagre supplies, and retain a still insufficient 
reserve at home, thus allowing the English to 
conquer in detail. 

In another matter, more in his line, Jefferson 
again showed good judgment. The enterprising 
frontier fighter. General George Rogers Clarke, 
by a bold and soldierly movement in the far 
northwestern part of the State, captured the 
British Colonel Hamilton. This officer had 
been accused of many atrocities, and though the 
charges probably outran the truth, yet Jefferson 
was justified in believing him a guilty man.^ He 
accordingly ordered the Colonel and two more 
officers to be put in irons and closely confined. 
The British General, Phillips, protested. Jef- 
ferson referred the matter to Washington, who, 
Avith much hesitation and apparent reluctance, 

1 Professor Tucker in his Life of Jefferson undertakes to 
defend Hamilton. But his defence amounts to little or nothing 
more than that he knew Hamilton, and thought him quite too 
good a fellow and too much of a gentleman to have been 
guilty of the behavior alleged against him. 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINfA. 59 

advised a mitigation of tlie extreme severity. 
But the dose was wholesome and Jefferson's 
stern readiness to administer it had a salutary- 
effect. He had in his keeping a large number 
of British prisoners, including many of high 
rank, and his avowed purpose, thus substantially 
enforced, to repay cruelty in kind and to re- 
taliate hangings, irons, close confinement, and 
prison ships with identical measures upon his 
own part, undoubtedly checked the brutal ten- 
dencies of too many of the English officers. 

Almost the last occurrence in Virginia under 
Governor Henry's administration had been a 
British raid. A dozen vessels landed some two 
thousand troops, who burned and ravaged ex- 
tensively for a few days, wholly unmolested, 
and then returned as they had come. The 
affair was a dangerous indication to the Eng- 
lish of the destruction which they could easily 
accomplish in this great reservoir of supplies. 
Yet it was not until late in October, 1780, that 
they repeated the enterprise. On the 22d of 
that month news came to Governor Jefferson 
that a fleet of sixty sail had anchored in Hamp- 
ton Roads ; four of the vessels were armed, while 
transports were putting on shore a land force 
roughly estimated at upwards of twenty-five 
hundred men. This was terrible intelligence in 
a thinly-settled country, where it must be long 



60 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

before an adequate defensive array could be 
assembled. Yet even men were more plentiful 
than muskets, and Jefferson sadly wrote : *' it is 
mortifying to suppose that a people, able and 
zealous to contend with their enemy, should be 
reduced to fold their arms for want of the 
means of defence." Two or three weeks later 
'' the prospect of arms " continued to be " very 
bad indeed." Moreover, in Albemarle County, 
hard by the anchorage ground, there were 
some four thousand prisoners of war, Bur- 
goyne's army, Avho had been consigned to Vir- 
ginia for safe-keeping. Cornwallis having 
lately defeated Gates badly at Camden, was 
less than one hundred and fifty miles from the 
Virginian border. A messenger from General 
Leslie, the commander of the invading body, 
was captured, having in his mouth a little quid 
containing a note to CornwaUis indicating a 
plan to unite both armies. In such imminent 
jeopardy the State and the Governor stood help- 
less, but ultimately were saved by good fortune 
and lack of enterprise on the part of the Eng- 
lish. The North Carolina patriots harassed 
Cornwallis till he actually fell back to the 
southward. Leslie lay a month in camp, mak- 
ing no movement, then embarked and sailed 
away. Virginia had another surj^rising respite. 
The third time the State was to fare worse. 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 61 

On the morning of Sunday, December 31, 1780, 
Jefferson again received intelligence that a fleet 
of twenty-seven vessels had entered Chesapeake 
Bay on the preceding day. Whatever may 
have been the case heretofore, it cannot be de- 
nied that he was now culpably remiss. It is 
true that he did not know that the fleet might 
not be French, or that its destination might not 
be Baltimore. But he did know that it cer- 
tainly might be British, that its destination 
might be Williamsburg, Petersburg, or Rich- 
mond, and that in such event the best speed 
could not collect the Virginian levies rapidly 
enough. It was the dead of winter, not a se- 
vere season in Virginia, and when the husband- 
man is idle. It is impossible to suggest a satis- 
factory reason why Jefferson should not, in such 
probable and instant emergency, have prepared 
at once for the worst. He did not ; he simply 
dispatched General Nelson, with abundant au- 
thority, to the lower river counties. Then he 
waited. 

On Tuesday morning, fifty valuable but 
wasted hours after the first news reached him, 
he at last got definite information which showed 
him how stupid he had been. The fleet was 
hostile and was coming up the James. Then 
he did what he ought to have done at eight 
o'clock A. M. of the preceding Sunday ; he oi> 



62 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

dered out forty-seven hundred militici-men from 
the nearest counties. Furthermore, having at 
hist got fairly at work, lie showed considerable 
personal energy. He got the public papers and 
some stores and articles of value across the 
river to a less exposed place, and he galloped 
about the country terribly busy and excited, till 
he killed his horse and was obliged to mount an 
unbroken colt. Eighty-four hours he was in 
the saddle. But the enemy cared little for all 
his prancing to and fro on blooded steed or 
raw colt. They ascended the river and entered 
Richmond, burned and destroyed to their 
hearts' content, reembarked and dropped down 
stream again. The militia were only beginning 
to assemble when the British were back en- 
trenching themselves in Leslie's deserted camp. 
The Governor returned to the devastated village 
which constituted his capital. He had shown 
that he was deficient in prompt decision ; in a 
word, that he was not the man for the place and 
the times. 

The invaders seemed to be established for a 
long stay and with slight chance of being dis- 
turbed ; for the " fatal want of arms " still con- 
tinued. There was not a regular soldier in the 
State, nor arms to put in the hands of the mil- 
itia. Matters were nearly as bad as in North 
Carolina where, Jefferson wrote, the Americans 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 63 

could be saved only by the " iiiodenition and 
caution" of their adversaries — a slender de- 
pendence indeed ! It added to the exasperation 
of the Virginians that the traitor, Arnold, was 
in command upon their soiL Jefferson tried to 
devise a scheme for kidnapping him ; but it 
may be conceived that such a bird was not to 
be snared by such a fowler. 

For several months the British kept Virginia 
in a state of nervous inquietude. It is easy to 
imagine how Jefferson, as the winter and spring 
crept forward on leaden heels, must have count- 
ed first the months, then the weeks, then even 
the very days, which had yet to elapse before 
his painful responsibility would reach its end. 
For the second year of his administration would 
close on June 1, and he had wisely resolved not 
to be a candidate for reelection. Possibly mut- 
terings of dissatisfaction alarmed him for his 
success. But in his autobiography he says : 
*' From a belief that, under the pressure of the 
invasion under which we were then laboring, 
the public would have more confidence in a 
military chief ; and that, the military com- 
mander being invested with the civil power 
also, both might be wielded with more energ3% 
promptitude, and effect for the defence of the 
State, I resigned the administration at the end 
of my second year." There was some talk 



64 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

among the discouraged Virginians, during the 
dark days now close at hand, of setting over 
themselves a dictator. This classic but mis- 
taken expedient Jefferson had the good sense 
to oppose ; he afterward said that " the very 
thought alone was treason against the people, 
was treason against mankind in general." For- 
tunately, his remonstrances prevailed in due 
season. 

April came and was fast passing. Only May 
remained before the wearied Governor would be 
governor no longer. But fortune had yet one 
more buffet to deal him at parting. In the lat- 
ter part of April, Cornwallis set out on a north- 
ward march, and, laying waste as he advanced, 
came into Virginia ; by May 20 he was in Pe- 
tersburg. The State lay at his mercy. Jeffer- 
son could devise nothing better than to implore 
Washington to hasten to its rescue. The Legis- 
lature, which had thrice already since the year 
came in fled in alarm from Richmond, had been 
adjourned to meet on May 24 at the safer vil- 
lage of Charlottesville, at the foot of the hills 
on which was Monticello. It was not till May 
28 that a quorum came together and then they 
deferred from day to day the election of a new 
governor. Jefferson's term expired, but still he 
had to hold over, since no successor had been 
chosen. Things were in this condition when, 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, 65 

on June 4, the early summer sun not having 
yet risen, a hard-ridden steed was reined up at 
the Governor's door. The rider had galloped 
in the night from an eastward county-town to 
say that a small body of British cavalry under 
the dreaded Tarlton was pushing rapidly along 
the road to Charlottesville and Monticello; 
they would probably be hardly three hours be- 
hind him. In this emergency Jefferson cer- 
tainly showed no lack of personal courage. 
That is to say, he was not panic-stricken. He 
did not go to Charlottesville, because he wisely 
reflected that the members of the Legislature 
were able to run away from the town without 
his assistance. He stayed tranquilly at home, 
breakfasted, sent away his family, and concealed 
his plate and papers, all very leisurely. Indeed, 
he owed his escape from capture more to good 
luck than to any intelligent precaution on his 
own part. Had he fallen into the enemy's 
hands he would have been thought to have 
acted stupidly. As it turned out he did get 
safely away into the woods, and Colonel Tarl- 
ton, disappointed of his prey, had only to ride 
back again. But the ignominious scattering of 
all the ruling officials of the State served to 
fasten still another irritating, though really un- 
deserved, stigma upon Jefferson's administra- 
tion. It was the more vexatious because he 

5 



66 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ought to have been freed several days before 
from so much as a technical responsibility. He 
was also then, and long afterward, made very 
angry by imputations upon his courage, as 
though his flight had been ignominious. It is 
needless to say that it was not so. He could 
hardly have been expected to stand alone in his 
doorway and shoot at the body of dragoons. 

Tarlton's men appear to have taken nothing 
at Jefferson's house beyond food and drink, in 
which refreshment even the owner himself could 
hardly have wished to stint them in that land 
of unquestioning hospitality. Jefferson after- 
ward said : " Tarlton behaved very genteelly 
with me." But at another of his farms, which 
fell within reach of Cornwallis' force, Jefferson 
fared worse. It was not long since certain Brit- 
ish commissioners, nominally sent on a futile 
errand of reconciliation, had declared that the 
inevitable conclusion of events must be that the 
colonies would become dependents of the French 
crown, and that England designed to make the 
gain of as little value to France as possible. 
The innuendo of this announcement was soon 
made the basis of practical operations ; and the 
British armies, devoting themselves more to 
devastation than to warfare, harried the country 
upon all sides. Jefferson suffered with the rest, 
and has left a formidable record of the pillage. 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. 67 

All his husbanded crops and one hundred and 
fifty cattle, sheep, and hogs were seized for 
food ; all his growing crops were wantonly- 
destroyed, and all his fences were burned ; not 
only were his many valuable horses taken, but 
the throats of colts too young to be used were 
barbarously cut. Thirty slaves also were car- 
ried away. " Had this been to give them free- 
dom," Jefferson said, Cornwallis " would have 
done right ; but it was to consign them to in- 
evitable death from the small-pox and putrid 
fever then raging in his camps," as in fact be- 
came their wretched fate. It is not surprising 
that in later days Jefferson cherished a bitter 
hostility towards a nation which had not only 
curtailed his popularity and reputation among 
his countrjnnen, but had also attacked his prop- 
erty in a spirit of extermination. 

The censorious temper which many Virgin- 
ians felt towards Jefferson found open expres- 
sion in the Legislature during the last few 
months of his administration ; and even some 
preparation, though just how much cannot be 
accurately ascertained, was made for an investi- 
gation. Certain it is that Mr. George Nich- 
olas moved for an inquiry at the next session,^ 

1 Jefferson afterward was on friendly terms with Nicholas, 
saying that he was an able and honest man, and that this 
motion was the blunder of an ardent youth, Nicholas also 
afterward made the amende honorable to Jefferson. 



68 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and that he was by no means without support- 
ers. The prevalence of this sort of talk cut 
Jefferson deeply and he went out of office in a 
very bitter frame of miud, resolved to leave for- 
ever tlie public service. He only wished to re- 
turn to the next session of the Legislature in 
order to court the threatened inquiry. To 
enable him to do this a member resigned, and 
then Albemarle County paid hiui the handsome 
honor of electing him one of its delegates, 
actually by an unanimous vote. Having taken 
his seat, he stated to the House his wish to 
meet the charges lately made against him. No 
one replied. He then read certain " objections " 
which had been mformally furnished to him by 
Nicholas, and gave his reply to them. Still no 
one rose to assail him. It was in December, 
1781, and the recent surrender of Cornwallis at 
Yorktown had probably softened somewhat the 
recent asperities. His friends became suffi- 
ciently emboldened to offer a resolution, which 
was readily passed, thanking him for his " im~ 
partial, upright, and attentive " administration, 
bearing testimony to his " ability, rectitude, and 
integrity," and avowing a purpose thus to re- 
move '' all unmerited censure." The closing 
phrase might mean much or little, and the ad- 
jectives and nouns, shrewdly selected, did not 
express exhaustive praise of an administration 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGIN I A. 69 

Sn time of war. But the whole constituted a 
mollifying application and an agreement to 
have done with unkindly criticism. Washington 
also had closed with some courteous words a let- 
ter, which he had lately found occasion to write 
to Jefferson, making a sort of certificate of good 
character. With such comfort as he could find 
in these testimonials, Jefferson withdrew to 
private life. He had had the misfortune to be 
placed in a position for which he was ill adapt- 
ed, and in which perhaps no one could have 
given satisfaction. He had merited some praise 
and some censure, and got less of the former 
and more of the latter than was quite just. Al- 
together he had had decidedly hard fortune. 



CHAPTER VI. 

IN CONGRESS AGAIN. 

The ex-Governor had experienced a wound 
far too deep to be healed by the gentle pallia- 
tive administered by the Legislature. In an 
extremely bitter and resentful frame of mind, 
he moodily secluded himself at home, and 
reiterated upon every opportunity his resolve 
never again to be drawn forth into public life. 
He busied himself with his plantations, the 
education of his children, and the care of his 
invalid wife. In the winter months, early in 
1782, he put the finishing touches to a labor 
which he had begun in the preceding spring, his 
well-known and useful ''Notes on Virginia." 
In the spring of the same year he obstinately 
refused to attend the session of the Legislature 
though he was still a member. His enemies se- 
verely criticised this conduct, which his friends 
could not easily defend : Madison privately de- 
plored such a display of irreconcilable temper, 
and Monroe more openly wrote him a plain 
letter of rebuke. But he was not to be moved ; 
his only reply was a reiteration of his rankling 



IN CONGRJ^SS AGAIN. 71 

sense of injury and his obstinate purpose to 
have done forever with the public service. 

Yet it is probable that a more araiable incen- 
tive for such conduct mingled with his anger, 
though he was too proud and too, hurt to name 
it. For his wife was in very ill health. In 
May, 1782, she lay iu Avith her sixth child, 
and thereafter there could be no real hope of 
her recovery. Jefferson was tender and assid- 
uous in his care of her as it was possible for 
man to be, and when at last, in September, the 
final day came, the scene was a terrible one. 
For three weeks after she died he did not leave 
his room ; afterward he had recourse to long 
wanderings in the solitary wood-paths of the 
mountain. His oldest daughter was his constant 
companion during these weeks of intense grief, 
of which she has left a harrowing picture, show- 
ing Jefferson to have been not only affectionate 
but very emotional in temperament. 

It is said that Mrs. Jefferson, almost in the 
extreme moment, begged her husband never to 
give her children a stepmother, and the pledge 
wdiich he then so solemnly made, he ever 
faithfully kept. Henceforth Martha, his first- 
born child, was to hold the warmest corner in 
his heart. She and Mary, the fourth child, 
were the only ones of six that were born to him 
who lived to mature years, and only Martha 



72 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

survived him. But the children of his brother- 
in-iaw, Dabney Carr, who had died young and 
poor, had been taken into his home, and re- 
mained there Uke his own. He was not only 
very kind and fond towards all these young 
people of his household, but he gave to their 
bringing up a conscientious and untiring care.^ 
The letters which he wrote to them, and which 
have been reproduced with encomiums by ad- 
miring biographers, are always absurdly didac- 
tic and often remind the reader of the effusions 
of the late Mrs. Barbauld, or of the virtue and 
wisdom enshrined in the pages of " Sanford and 
Merton ; " but they are kindly and indicative of 
a lively interest. 

In September, 1776, Congress nominated 
Jefferson, with Franklin and Deane, to frame 
a treaty of alliance and commerce with France • 
but he declined the mission. In June, 1781, he 
was again deputed to go abroad w^ito Franklin, 
Adams, Jay, and Laurens, to negotiate a treaty 

1 The list of Jefferson's children is as toliows — Martha 
Jefferson, born September 27, 1772, marrieo to I nomas Manu 
Randolph on February 23, 1790, died October 10, 1836 ;"^Jane 
Randolph Jefferson, born April 3, 1774, died September 1775; 
*^a son, born May 28, 1777, died June 14, 1777 ;'' Mary (or 
Maria) Jefferson, born August 1, 1778, married to John W. 
Eppes on October 13, 1797, and died April 17, 1804 }' a daugh- 
ter, born November 3, 1780, died April 15, 1781 j^ucy Elizar 
beth Jefferson, born May 8, 1782, died 1784. 



7A^ CONGRESS AGALV. 73 

of peace; but again lie pleaded personal reasons 
as an excuse. Two months after the death of 
his wife news came to him at the seat of his 
friend Colonel Gary, at Ampthill, where he was 
nursing his own children and the young Carrs 
through the process of inoculation, that he had 
been again appointed upon the same duty. The 
proposition came opportunely, offering an ac- 
tivity and change of scene at once wholesome 
and agreeable. He accepted, and made ready 
for departure ; but the presence of French 
cruisers off the coast delayed the sailing of 
vessels, and before he could get away news 
came showing that the negotiations were so far 
advanced that his presence would be substan- 
tially useless. So in February, 1783, he again 
returned home. 

But another door for reentrance into public 
life was forthwith opened. On June 6, 1783, 
he was chosen by the Virginia Legislature a 
member of Congress, whither he repaired in 
November following. That body had fallen 
into something very like contempt, and many 
gentlemen conceived that the honor, such as it 
w^as, of membership need not entail the trouble 
of attendance. So it happened that, though 
the treaty of peace was to be ratified before a 
certain near date, only seven States were rep- 
resented, whereas the assent of nine was neces- 



74 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

sary. Some members proposed that the seven 
should ratify, upon the chance that Great Brit- 
ain would never detect the insufficiency. But 
this dishonorable expedient was vigorously op- 
posed by Jefferson and others. At last an ur- 
gent appeal brought in some of the delinquent 
members ; and Jefferson had the pleasure of 
signing the treaty which established the In- 
dependence declared in his document seven 
years before. It fell to him, also, to play an 
important part in arranging the ceremonial of 
Washington's resignation. 

The need of an executive power more per- 
manent than this intermittent Congress led 
Jefferson to propose a " committee of the 
States," to be composed of one member from 
each State and to remain in session during the 
recesses. The plan was adopted, but resulted 
in complete failure by reason of factions in the 
committee. He showed a sounder wisdom in 
his criticism of Morris' report on the national 
finances. That gentleman, by ingenious figur- 
ing, had devised a money unit which was a 
perfectly accurate common measure between 
the currencies of all the States. This was the 
^_i__ part of a dollar. Jefferson justly found 
fault with a system which would make all the 
little computations of daily life ridiculously 
vast and complex. For example, he said, the 



IN CONGRESS AGAIN. 75 

price of a loaf of bread, oV of ^ dollar, would 
be 72 units ; of a pound of butter, i of a dol- 
lar, 288 units ; of a horse, worth |80, 115,200 
units; while a national debt of 880,000,000 
would be 115,200,000,000 units. To escape such 
palpable folly he suggested the dollar as the 
unit. 

Jefferson further had the pleasure of tender- 
ing to Congress Virginia's deed, ceding her vast 
northwestern territory to be held as the com- 
mon property of all the States. Directly after- 
ward he was made one of the committee charged 
to prepare a plan for the government of this 
region. The report was doubtless composed by 
him, since the draft in the State Department is 
in his handwriting. It contains the substance 
of the famous Ordinance of the Northwestern 
Territory. Its most honorable provision is, 
" that after the year 1800 of the Christian era, 
there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary 
servitude in any of the said States, otherwise 
than in punishment of crimes," etc. Yet be- 
side this humane and noble piece of statesman- 
ship we have a glimpse of that absurd element 
in Jefferson's mind which his admirers sought 
to excuse by calling him a ''philosopher." The 
matter is small to be sure, but suggestive. He 
proposed as names for the several subdivisions 
of this territory : Sylvania, Michigania, Cher- 



76 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ronesus, Assenisippia, Metropotamia, Illinoia, 
Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia, and Peli- 
sipia. Fortunately these wondrous classic titles 
have not afflicted the children of our common 
schools. But much less happily the clause pro- 
hibiting slavery was lost, only six of the North- 
eastern and Middle States voting for it. 

Such were the last legislative undertakings 
of Mr. Jefferson. On May 7, 1784, he left 
Congress. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MINISTER TO FRANCE. 

Simultaneously with his retirement from 
Congress Jefferson was for the fourth time ap- 
pointed to a foreign mission. His errand was 
to aid Dr. Franklin and John Adams in nego- 
tiating treaties of commerce. He sailed from 
Boston July 5, 1784, and arrived in Portsmouth 
July 30. He proceeded at once to Paris, and 
soon established liimself there in a handsome 
house, which he afterward exchanged for one of 
considerable magnificence, and in all respects 
he made arrangements for living in very good 
style. His salary was nine thousand dollars a 
year, and with all the aid he could get from 
his private fortune he was hard pushed to meet 
his expenses. His daughter Martha he placed 
at the most fashionable and exclusive convent- 
school in the country. 

He soon found that he could do little for the 
United States beyond representing them credit- 
ably and serving as a respectable sample of the 
new trans- Atlantic people. Nor were his duties 
much changed when, in the following spring, 



78 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the trio of diplomatists was broken up by tlie 
departure of Franklin for home and of John 
Adams for England, and by his own appoint- 
ment as resident minister to France. The un- 
pleasant truth was that the ancient monarchies 
of Europe knew little and cared less for the 
parvenu republics of a distant continent, and 
were indifferent concerning commercial treaties 
with a people whose commerce was an unknown 
and unvalued quantity. " Lady Rockminster 
has took us up," said the Begum Clavering to 
Pendennis ; and very much in the same way 
France had taken up the North American 
States. She vouched for their respectability, 
treated them publicly with pointed courtesy, 
and affably extended to their representatives 
the hospitalities of her court for holding diplo- 
matic intercourse with other powers. But when 
these other powers, though civil enough, were 
wholly uninterested, France could not further 
help her proteges. Indeed, she herself dis- 
appointed expectation when it came to actual 
business. Jefferson, who had decided notions 
about the advantages of free trade, was untiring 
in his efforts to mitigate the severity of the 
French regulations, and his diplomatic corre- 
spondence with Vergennes and Montmorin 
fairly reeks with the flavors of whale oils, salt- 
fish, and tobacco. Yet he was able to accom- 
plish scarcely anything. 



3I1NISTKR TO FRANCE. 79 

He had also to encounter the usual luimili- 
ations which beset all American envoys for 
many years by reason of the financial embar- 
rassments of the States. He lived in a hive of 
creditors of his nation, who seemed resolved, if 
tliey could not extort from him payment of 
their demands, at least to have their money's 
worth in tormenting him. He was fnrtlier 
much irritated at being compelled to aid in 
arranging, on behalf of his countrymen, that 
disgraceful tribute which powerful civilized na- 
tions were wont to pay to the corsair states of 
Northern Africa. He strenuously urged that 
war would be more effectual, more honorable, 
and in the end not more costly, and lie proposed 
to form a league of commercial nations to sus- 
tain a combined naval armament sufficient to 
overawe those pirates in their own waters. But 
his spirited and sensible efforts did not meet 
with the success which they deserved. 

In the early spring of 1786 another unpleas- 
ant task awaited him. He was obliged to spend 
a few weeks in London in the hope of aiding 
IMr. Adams in sundry commercial negotiations 
there pending. He was presented, he says, 
*' as usual, to the King and Queen at their 
levees, and it was impossible for anything to 
be more ungracious than their notice of Mr. 
Adams andmyself." Also the Marquis of Caer- 



80 TIIOMAiS JEFFERSON. 

nicirthen, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was so 
vague and evasive as to confirm Mr. Jefferson 
in his belief of the English " aversion to have 
anything to do with us." Naturally he achieved 
nothing and went away in no pleasant frame of 
mind, carrying personal reminiscences chiefly 
of coldness and insolence. His contempt and 
hatred towards England, much intensified by 
this trip, and his belief in the bitter hostility of 
that country towards the States, hereafter find 
frequent and vigorous exjjression in his corre- 
spondence. 

" That nation hate us," he wrote, " their ministers 
hate us, and their King more than all other men. . . . 
Our overtures of commercial arrangements have been 
treated with derision. ... I think their hostility to- 
wards us is much more deeply rooted at present than 
during the war." 

" In spite of treaties, England is still our enemy. 
Her hatred is deei>rooted and cordial, and nothing is 
wanting with her but the power to wipe us and the 
land we live in out of existence." 

The English "do not conceive that any circum- 
stance will arise which shall render it expedient for 
them to have any political connection with us. They 
think we shall be glad of their commerce on their 
own terms. There is no party in our favor here, 
either in power or out of power. Even the opposi- 
tion concur with the ministry and the nation in this." 

" I think the Kiuir, ministers, and nation are more 



MINISTER iO ^-R ■ 81 

bitterly hostile to us at present tbuD at iiny period a, f- 
the late war." 

"The spirit of hostility to us has aiway,? ■ , 
in the mind of the King, but it has now exw- 
self through the whole mass of the people anu • 
majority in the public councils." 

" I had never concealed . . . that I considered 
the British as our natural enemies and as the only 
nation on earth who wished us ill from the bottom of 
their souls. And I am satisfied that, were our con- 
tinent to be swallowed up by the ocean, Great Britain 
would be in a bonfire from one side to the other." 

So excessive was his distrust that he even 
" thought the English capable of administering 
aid to the Algerines." 

He was further profoundly incensed at the 
bad character which persistent abuse by the 
English press was fastening upon his country 
among Europeans. " There was," he says, " an 
enthusiasm towards us all over Europe at the 
moment of the peace. The torrent of lies pub- 
lished unremittingly in every day's London 
papers first made an impression and produced 
a coolness. The republication of these lies in 
most of the papers of Europe . . . carried them 
home to the belief of every mind." The wretch- 
ed credit of the States abroad is, he says, 
" partly owing to their real deficiencies, and 
partly to the lies propagated by the London 



8:> THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

papers, winch are probably paid for by the 
minister to reconcile the people to the loss of 
us. No paper, therefore, conies out without a 
dose of paragraphs against America." 

This state of popular feeling in England 
filled Jefferson with forebodings for the future. 
"In a country where the voice of the people 
influences so much the measures of administra- 
tion, and where it coincides with the private 
temper of the King, there is no pronouncing on 
future events." ''A like disposition [of hostility] 
on our part has been rising for some time. . . . 
Our countrymen are eager in their passions and 
enterprises and not disposed to calculate their 
interests against these." Reflecting that the 
animosities " which seize the wliole body of a 
people, and of a people too who dictate their 
own measures, produce calamities of long dura- 
tion," he said that he should " not wonder to 
see the scenes of ancient Rome and Carthage 
renewed in our days." But he consoled himself 
with the reflection that " we are young and can 
survive them ; but their rotten machine must 
crush under the trial." 

Jefferson was preeminently a man of peace ; 
he instinctively loved it, and he knew that his 
own abilities fitted him only for peaceful scenes. 
About the time of which ^e are writing he re- 
marked that " the most successful war seldom 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 83 

pays for its losses," and tliroiigliout life he 
hated everything which did nob pay. He there- 
fore deprecated a war even with England ; yet 
he abominated her with that peculiar bitterness 
which is seldom cherished by more combative 
natures, but has a strange way of lurking in 
the obscure depths of pacific characters. Al- 
lowing for a little excess in this feeling, he was 
in the main perfectly right. It is necessary to 
dip very little beneath the tranquil surface of 
history to find a vast reservoir of evidence in 
corroboration of his views and justification of 
his feelings. He read English sentiments and 
purposes with perfect accuracy. But further, 
besides their enmity he plainly saw that per- 
verse and obstinate dulness which was so long 
a marked trait in their intercourse with this 
country. With bitter justice he said, ''our 
enemies (for such they are in fact) have for 
twelve years past followed but one uniform 
rule, that of doing exactly the contrary of what 
reason points out. Having early during our 
contest observed this in the British conduct, I 
governed myself by it in all prognostications of 
their measures ; and I can say with truth it 
never failed me but in the circumstance of their 
making peace with us." He further ventured 
to say that the English " require to be kicked 
into common good manners." Yet he retained 



)MAS JEFFERSk 

34 TiJC ^^' 

to admit the ,. ^ , 

sufficient fairness ^j ^nmei '^^°<'"'="^': °f ';« 

English system • ,g^ j^^. t,,, it, reserving Ins 

,;i^mni^i-ion clii . . behavior or the 

condemnaciou ^^^v ^i^^g^-jt men. ; 

ministry and proi^^^ ^^^ ^^.^^ 

From this futM .^^^^ ^^ ^ ^^ perating Enghsh 
trip Jefferson reti\ ^^^^^ p^^.^ ^orongldy congen- 
ial society. If, as „ ^^i-n years glided 
pleasantly by, they -eemed fraught with little 
matter o£ importaivce for the States, and to be 
chiefly instrumented in promoting JefPerson's 
personal gratificati^^^n, it was only because their 
true bearing wj-is i^^t yet apparent. It was 
seed-time, and -^^e harvest was not to ripen 
f*l Jefferson ^^loidd become the leader of a 
powerful party ''^ the United States. Then Eng- 
lish msolence ai^<i French courtesy began sever- 
11 to bear t^®^^' appropriate fruits, and the 
therins" was \ "matter of some consequence to 
all concerned. 

Mr Jeffersc^'s stay in France extended 

throuo-h five y^^'^. When he arrived, the mon- 

archy'^seemed^i'i^b^ established as ever; before 

"h left the istille had been destroyed, blood 

Vi 1 been free' spilled in the streets, mobs had 

overawed the^ii^g and slain cabinet ministers. 

No Frenchma watched events with more pro- 

f nd interest^^an did Jefferson, and none had 

better opporb^ties than he enjoyed for observ- 

inff the gradu advance of revolutionary feel- 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 85 

ing. His own predilections and his natural in- 
timacy with Lafayette bronglit him from the 
outset into the society of the liberal or patriotic 
party. These men, moderate and reasonable 
reformers and not at all identical with the vio- 
lent revolutionists of later stages, found in him 
a kindred spirit, long accustomed to think the 
thoughts which they were just beginning to 
think, and to hold the beliefs which they were 
now acquiring. They made of him at once an 
instructor, counsellor, and sympathizing friend. 
They recognized him as one of themselves, a 
speculative thinker concerning the rights of 
mankind, a preacher of extreme doctrines of 
political freedom, a deviser of theories of gov- 
ernment, a propounder of vague but imposing 
generalizations, a condemner of the fetters of 
practicability, in a word, in the slang of that 
day, a " philosopher ; " and they liked him ac- 
cordingly. Upon his own part, his interest in 
the reformation of their odious royal despotism 
could hardly have been greater, had he himself 
been a Frenchman. He went daily to Versailles 
to attend the debates of the National Assembly. 
Lafayette and others sought his suggestions. 
The Archbishop of Bordeaux, as head of a 
committee of the National Assembly, charged 
to draft the projet of a constitution, actually 
invited him " to attend and assist at their delib- 



86 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

erations." This he wisely declined to do. But 
later, in private conference with one or two 
personal friends, he proposed an important step, 
— that " the King, in a seance royale^ should 
come forward with a charter of rights in his 
hand, to be signed by himself and by every 
member " of the Assembly ; and he actually 
sketched the chief heads of such a " charter." 

If these acts seem an interference of ques- 
tionable propriety, yet upon the whole it must 
be admitted that he behaved with excellent 
discretion and self-control, though the tempta- 
tion to mingle in affairs w^as rendered excep- 
tionall}^ great by his real interest in them, by 
the abnormal state of political matters, by his 
friendship with Lafayette and others, and by 
the deference which was shown to him person- 
ally, indicative of the influence which he might 
exert. Only once did he appear in danger of 
being seriously compromised, and then it was 
through the blunder of another. Lafayette, 
without previously consulting him, arranged 
that six or eight discordant chiefs of different 
sections of the liberal party in the Assembly 
should dine at Jefferson's house, in the hope 
that they miglit reach an agreement. Jefferson 
was much anno3^ed at this " inadvertence " on 
the part of his friend, and waited on Count 
Montmorin the next morning with an explana- 
tion. The Count replied that 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 87 

" he already knew everything which had passed, 
that so far from taking umbrage at the use made of 
my house on that occasion he earnestly wished I 
would habitually assist at such conferences, being 
sure I should be useful in moderating the warmer 
spirits and promoting a wholesome and practicable 
reformation only. I told him I knew too well the 
duties I owed to the King, to the nation, and to my 
own country, to take any part in councils concerning 
their internal government, and that I should perse- 
vere with care in the character of a neutral and 
passive spectator, with wishes only and very sincere 
oneS; that those measures might prevail which would 
be for the greatest good of the nation." 

It has been the fashion to say that the feel- 
ings and ideas gathered by Jefferson in France 
constituted the predominant influence through- 
out his subsequent political career. In this 
there is much exaggeration, and towards him 
much injustice. His character was more inde- 
pendent. Moreover, he was a mature man when 
he went abroad, and had been busied from early- 
youth, alike in the way of theory and practice, 
with the political and social problems of govern- 
ment. The originating disposition and radical 
temper of his mind had appeared from the out- 
set, and were only confirmed, not created, by his 
foreign experience. Neither was his affection 
for France, nor his antipathy to England, then 



88 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

first implanted. Both sentiments were strong 
before he crossed the Atlantic ; they were only 
encouraged by the pleasures of his long resi- 
dence in the one country, and the convictions 
borne in upon him during his brief visit to the 
other. His character would be ill understood 
if it w^ere supposed that his subsequent politi- 
cal career was the exotic growth of French 
seeds, instead of being developed in ordinary 
course from the native root. He would always 
have been a radical, an extreme democrat, a 
hater of England, a lover of France, a sympa- 
thizer with the French revolutionists, though 
he had never sailed out of sight of American 
shores. The only effect of his Euiopean life 
was to corroborate preiixisting opinions, and 
somewhat to intensify sentiments already en- 
tertained. Perhaps these w^ere naturally so 
strong that a counteracting influence would 
liave been more wholesome ; and this might 
have been experienced had he remained to wit- 
ness the Eeign of Terror and the ascendency 
of Robespierre. This, however, was not to be. 
In September, 1789, he sailed for liome ivom 
Havre, upon what he supposed to be a short 
leave of absence granted at his urgent request. 
But events, as will be seen, rendered his stay 
at home permanent. 

Jefferson ought to have been a happy man 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 89 

when lie set sail on this return trip. Never did 
an involuntary exile glorify, in imagination, his 
lost home as Jefferson had been glorifying the 
States for five years past. All the charms of 
Paris were to him as nothing in comparison 
with the merits of his dear native land. " Lon- 
don," he said, " though handsomer than Paris, 
is not so handsome as Philadelphia ! " In the 
way of education, only vice and modern lan- 
guages were better taught in Europe than at 
home ; instruction was just as good at William 
and Mary College as at the most famous seats 
of learning abroad ! He begged Monroe to 
come to France, because " it will make you 
adore your own country, its soil, its climate, 
its equality, liberty, laws, people, and manners." 
He predicted that many Europeans would settle 
in America, but " no man now living will ever 
see an instance of an American removing to 
settle in Europe and continuing there." The 
virtues of his fellow-citizens he attributes to the 
fact that they have " been separated from their 
parent stock and kept from contamination, 
either from them or the other people of the old 
world, by the intervention of so wide an ocean.'* 
" With all the defects of our Constitution, . . . 
the comparison of our governments with those 
of Europe is like a comparison of heaven and 
hell. England, like the earth, may be allowed 
to take the intermediate station.'* 



90 TH03IAS JEFFERSON. 

To the gaze of such a patriot everything 
wliich took place in his own country seemed 
admirable. Even Sbays's insurrection in Mas- 
sachusetts, which, by the alarm that it spread 
among all thinking men, contributed largely to 
the adoption of the new Constitution, seemed 
to Jefferson a commendable occurrence. Un- 
deniably he talked some very bad nonsense 
about it. 

" The commotions offer nothing threatening ; they 
are a proof that the people have liberty enough, 
and I could not wish them less than they have. If 
the happiness of the mass of the people can be 
secured at the expense of a little tempest, now and 
then, or even of a little blood, it will be a i^recious 
purchase." " To punish these errors too severely 
would be to suppress the only safeguard of the pub- 
lic liberty." " A little rebellion now and then is a 
good thing, ... an observation of this truth should 
render honest republican governors so mild in their 
punishment of rebellions as 7iot to discourage them too 
much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound 
health of government." " Thus I calculate, — an_in- 
surrectiou in one of thirteen States in the course of 
eleven years that they have subsisted, amounts to one 
in any particular State in one hundred and forty- 
three years, say a century and a half. This would 
not be near as many as have happened in every other 
government that has ever existed. So that we shall 
have the differeuce between a light aud a heavy gov* 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 91 

ernment as clear gain." " Can history produce an 
instance of rebellion so honorably conducted ? . . . 
God forbid we should ever be twenty years without 
such a rebellion. . . . What signify a few lives lost 
in a century or two ? The tree of liberty must be 
refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots 
and tyrants. It is its natural manure." 

It shakes one's faith in mankind to find a 
really great statesman uttering such folly I It 
liad not even the poor excuse of being caught 
from the French revolutionists ; for the latest 
of these sentences was uttered in November, 
1787, when Jefferson was more probably en- 
gaged in imparting such extravagant notions 
to the moderate French reformers than in 
receiving these wild ideas from them. In truth, 
Jefferson was recoiling too far from the " con- 
spiracy of kings and nobles," and was cast for 
a time into the ridiculous position of advocat- 
ing a " no government" theory. " The basis of 
our governments," he said, "being the opinion 
of the people, the very first object should be to 
keep that right," — a sound postulate vvhich 
he makes the pedestal for a preposterous super- 
structure ; for he adds, " were it left to me to 
decide whether we should have a government 
without newspapers, or newspapers without a 
government, I should not hesitate a moment to 
prefer the latter," — the newspapers of the latter 



92 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

half of the eighteenth century! "I am con- 
vinced,'' he says, " that those societies (as the 
Indians) which Hve without government enjoy 
in their general mass an infinitely greater de- 
gree of happiness than those who live under 
the European governments. Among the former 
public opinion is in the place of law, and re- 
straining morals as powerfully as laws ever did 
anywhere." '^ Societies exist under three forms ; 
. . . 1. Without government as among our In- 
dians. 2. Under governments wherein the will 
of every one has a just influence. » . . 3. Under 
governments of force. . . . It is a problem not 
clear in my mind that the first condition is not 
the best." One loses patience with an intelli- 
gent man talking such stuff. 

Jefferson's experience abroad, in attempting 
to form commercial treaties, had taught him the 
necessity of a closer union of the States for 
purposes of foreign relationships ; but when the 
lesson of Shays's insurrection was even read 
backwards by him, it is easy to see that he was 
far from comprehending the domestic necessity 
for a much firmer consolidation. " My general 
plan," he said, '' would be to make the States 
one as to everything connected with foreign 
nations, and several as to everything purely do- 
mestic." Such being his opinion, it was inevit 
able that when the Constitution of the United 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 93 

State was published, he found much in it which 
seemed to him very unsound and objectionable. 
There are in the document, he said, '' things 
which stagger all my dispositions to subscribe 
to what such an assembly has proposed," and 
his earliest criticisms were very severe. Further 
consideration, however, the arguments of the 
Federalist, and correspondence with Madison 
and Monroe, gradually induced him to modify 
his views. By May, 1788, he was able to say : 
" I look forward to the general adoption of the 
new Constitution with anxiety, as necessary 
for us under our present circumstances." If 
in many particulars he was still imperfectly 
pleased, he was only of the like sentiment with 
most of the zealous advocates of adoption. 
Probably every prominent man among the Fed- 
eralists could, in his own opinion, have sug- 
gested improvements. Jefferson finally took 
the national charter as its other supporters did, 
*' contented with the ground which it will gain 
for us, and hoping that a favorable moment will 
come for correcting what is amiss in it." His 
earlier wish was that nine States would adopt 
it, " in order to insure what was good in it, and 
that the others might, by holding off, produce 
the necessary amendments." But later he de- 
clared the plan of Massachusetts to be " far 
preferable," and expressed the hope that it 



94 TB031AS JEFFERSON. 

would " be followed by those who are yet to de- 
cide." Finally on December 4, 1788, he writes, 
" I have seen with infinite pleasure our new 
Constitution accepted by eleven States, not re- 
jected by the twelfth ; and that the thirteentli 
happens to be a State of the least importance." 
The preceding extracts, which might be 
multiplied by many more of identical tenor, 
abundantly show Jefferson's real sentiments 
concerning the Constitution, and refute the un- 
fair charge afterward brought against him by 
his enemies, that he was opposed to it. His 
own characteristic statement was, " I am not a 
Federalist, because I never submitted the whole 
system of my opinions to the creed of any 
party of men whatever, in religion, in philoso- 
phy, in politics, or in anything else where I was 
capable of thinking for myself. Such an addic- 
tion is the last degradation of a free and moral 
agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a 
party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I 
am not of the party of the Federalists. But I am 
much farther from that of the anti-Federalists. 
I approved, from the first moment, of the great 
mass of what is in the new Constitution." He 
then continues at great length to show how his 
objections gradually gave way before argument, 
until a confession of faith, too rigid to have 
been repeated by him, could have been repeated 



MINISTER TO FRANCE. 95 

by very few individuals in the States. It is 
probable that the Constitution was nearer to his 
ideal upon the one side than it was to Hamil- 
ton's ideal upon the other. The only serious 
objections, which he retained to the end, were 
the absence of a bill of rights and the reeligi- 
bility of the President. The former real defect 
was promptly and wisely cured; the latter has 
been practically controlled by a wise custom 
which he himself helped to inaugurate. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

SECRETARY OF STATE. — DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 

On October 23, 1789, Mr. Jefferson sailed 
from Cowes, and on December 23 he was wel- 
comed by bis slaves at Monticello. At his de- 
parture he had supposed that he was returning 
home for a visit of a few months only, and that 
he should speedily go back to watch the prog- 
ress of the French Revolution. He was now 
so much more interested in this movement than 
in any other matter, that he was by no means 
gratified to find awaiting him, upon his arrival, 
an invitation from President Washington to 
fill the place of secretary of state. He replied 
that he did not prefer the change, but that he 
would be governed by the President's wishes. 
Washington thereupon wrote again in very 
u rodent fashion, and Madison made a visit to 
Monticello for the express purpose of exerting 
his personal influence. Beneath such pressure 
Jefferson reluctantly abandoned his hope of re- 
maining abroad, and accepted the secretaryship, 
only stipulating for a few weeks for setting 
in order his private affairs. It was not until 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 97 

March 21, 1790, that he arrived m New York 
and entered upon the duties of his office. 

In those days the cabinet consisted of only 
four persons. John Jay had been acting tem- 
porarily as secretary of state, but with the un- 
derstanding that he should be made chief jus- 
tice so soon as a permanent secretary could be 
appointed ; Hamilton had been made secretary 
of the treasury immediately after Washing- 
ton's inauguration ; about the same time Knox 
had been appointed secretary of war, and later 
Edmund Randolph had been made attorney- 
general. The great brunt of the labor in the 
organization of public affairs had fallen and 
still rested upon Hamilton, who had encoun- 
tered the vast and complex task with mag- 
nificent spirit and ability. By the time that 
Jefferson came to share in the business of gov- 
ernment, all questions concerning the foreign 
debt and the domestic national debt had beeu 
disposed of by Congress in accordance with 
Hamilton's recommendations. But there still 
remained, as a bone of fierce contention, the 
secretary's scheme for the assumption by the 
United States of the war debts of the individ- 
ual States ; and concerning this the opposing 
parties had been wrought up to a pitch of ex- 
ceeding bitterness and excitement. In com- 
mittee of the whole in the House of Repre- 



98 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

sentatives the assumption had been carried by 
thirty-one yeas to twenty-six nays ; but when 
the question came to be taken in the House 
proper the representatives from North Carolina 
had arrived, and aided in turning the scale, so 
that on March 29 the measure was voted down. 
From the condition of feeling it was evident 
til at a serious crisis already menaced the young 
nation. Congress met daily and adjourned 
without transacting any business ; the hostile 
factions could not work together upon any sub- 
ject, and, indeed, nobody cared to think or talk 
of anything save assumption. Threats of dis- 
union were heard on all sides. Hamilton con- 
templated the emergency with profound anxi- 
ety, for the Treasur}^ Department carried within 
itself the fate of the new government ; and upon 
his financiering really depended the existence 
of a people. The momentous struggle called 
forth all the resources of his ingenious and fer- 
tile mind. While he kept up a steady fight all 
alonsr the front, he also set himself to devise a 
flank movement, and in this manoeuvre he re- 
solved to make use of Mr. Jefferson. 

It happened opportunely that the selection 
of a site for the national capital had given rise 
to an eager sectional division in Congress. The 
Southern States wanted it on the Potomac , the 
Middle and Eastern States wished it to be 



SECHETARV OF STATE. 99 

farther north. The northern pjirt}^ had pre- 
vailed by a narrow majority. Now it was for- 
tunately the case that the parties in the assump- 
tion debate had divided by the like sectional 
lines ; the Middle and Eastern States were in 
favor of assumption ; the Southern States were 
opposed to it ; and in this matter the South 
had prevailed, also by a slender majority. The 
opportunity for a bargain Avas obvious ; the 
temptation to it was irresistible ; the justifica- 
tion was sufficiently satisfactory. Hamilton ac- 
cordingly resolved to buy two or three votes 
for his assumption scheme at the price of the 
required number of votes for the Potomac site. 
In this bit of political commerce he selected Jef- 
ferson as an efficient partner. So one day, meet- 
ing Jefferson in the street, Hamilton walked 
with him and discussed the matter. He de- 
picted the national jeopardy in woful colors, 
and movingly besought Jefferson to use his in- 
fluence with some of his friends and to save the 
Union. Jefferson replied that he was " really 
a stranger to the whole subject," but that the 
preservation of the country touched him nearly, 
and he begged Hamilton to dine with him the 
next day, to meet one or two more whom he 
would invite, in the hope that together the}^ 
might devise some acceptable " compromise." 
The dinner came off, Jefferson afterward wrote 



100 THOMAS JEFFERSON: 

that he himself " could take no part in [the 
discussion] but an exhortatory one," because 
he was a " stranger to the circumstances which 
should govern it." But the bargain was then 
and there struck ; and at that dinner-table as- 
sumption was bought for a capital on the Poto- 
mac. The terms of the agreement were punct- 
ually fulfilled. The requisite number of votes 
were delivered, so to speak, on both sides, and 
Hamilton's financial policy prevailed without 
mutilation. 

Soon, however, Jefferson found himself deeply 
repenting his share in this transaction. He be- 
gan to doubt whether the measure was really 
wise and right, and he plainly saw that from a 
personal and'selfish point of view he had blun- 
dered seriously. For he had greatly aided the 
prestige and influence of one who soon became 
his most formidable political opponent, and he 
had been largely efficient in achieving the suc- 
cess of a measure wliich his party was forth- 
with to single out for especial denunciation. 
When, therefore, he was pushed ere long to 
find explanations of this compromising fellow- 
ship with Hamilton, he behaved like the fox 
who gnaws off his own leg to escape from the 
trap ; he sacrificed, by denial, one of the most 
marked of his mental traits, his political astute- 
ness; he said that lie had been tricked by Ham- 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 101 

ilton, and made a dupe and tool in a department 
of business with which he was unfamiliar, that 
he had been ^' most ignorantly and innocently 
made to hold the candle " for the wicked game 
of the Secretary of the Treasury. Such a de- 
fence seemed a bad advertisement of his fitness 
for political leadership, and was otherwise so 
poor and incredible that it would not have been 
resorted to, could any other have been devised. 
The bargain which had been made w^as per- 
fectly plain and simple, at least in respect of 
political morality, and so far as this went could 
be explained and comprehended in five min- 
utes. As for the soundness of the policy of as- 
sumption, Jefferson could have heard little else 
talked about since his arrival at New York. He 
knew the bitterness of the contest concerning 
it, and if he had not made up his mind about 
it, he was rash in taking sides so decisively. 
But if he had been rash he was not therefore 
entitled to abuse Hamilton for setting forth 
and promoting his own views.^ The truth is 
not, however, buried out of sight beneath his 
excuses and explanation of his action. This 
truth is, that he was asked and that he con- 

1 As evidence that Jefferson understood very well what he 
was about, and had his own wishes in the matter, see his letter 
to Monroe of June 20, 1790, and letter to Gilmer of June 27, 
\790. 



102 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

sented to take a part before lie comprehended 
or even sospected the powerful formative en- 
ergies which ran under the surface of Hamil- 
ton's financial measures, like sinews beneath 
the skin. He was, therefore, willing enough to 
help forward a measure upon which seemed to 
depend the continuance of the Union, and of 
which the remoter bearing and effects lay be- 
yond his vision. A little later he appreciated 
that Hamilton had not only been handling the 
finances with singular technical skill, but had 
also been so shaping all his measures that they 
had constituted so many tonic doses adminis- 
tered to the national government, strengthen- 
ing it, confirming it in the interests of an influ- 
ential portion of the community, and exercising 
a powerful centralizing influence. When all 
this dawned upon Jefferson's understanding, he 
was filled with horror and indignation at the 
share he had unwittingly taken in promoting 
principles of government which he abominated. 
Also he was seriously irritated at the incon- 
venient light in which he had thus been made 
to appear before those with whom he sought 
political fellowship and authority. Then, his 
eyes being at last opened, anger against Ham- 
ilton induced him to assert that Hamilton had 
outwitted him by taking unfair advantage of 
his inexperience. 



: : ' / ^AR Y OF STA TE. 103 

Jefferson was no financier. The shrewd good 
sense wljich he had displayed in managing his 
own business, as a planter, was superseded by 
an uncontrollable passion for theorizing, when 
he came to grapple with the great and intri- 
cate problems of national finances. At times 
he wandered into the wildest and most absurd 
vagaries. Thus, only a few months before he 
took his seat in the cabinet, he had been much 
pleased with a novel idea that had struck him 
concerning "• a question of such consequences 
as not only to merit decision, but place also 
among the fundamental principles of every gov- 
ernment." It is with some astonishment that 
the patient reader follows through several pages 
of guileless argument the development of this 
grand, fundamental, newW-discovered truth, and 
finally learns the confounding doctrine that no 
public debt can rightfully survive the genera- 
tion which contracts it ! The daring and orig- 
inal logician starts with the " self-evident " 
proposition that " the earth belongs in usufruct 
to the living ; that the dead have neither pow- 
ers nor rights over it." But, he says, if a debt 
survives the generation which contracts it, then 
the subsequent generation takes " the earth " 
subject to a burden imposed by and for the 
dead. This must needs be wrong, since it is 
counter to a " self-evident " premise. Now as- 



104 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Burning that men come of age at twenty-one, 
and that the majority of those who are alive at 
twenty-one will live thirty-four years more, it 
follows that a generation may contract debts to 
run thirty-four years and no longer. This pe- 
riod he afterward reduced to nineteen years ; 
for " a generation consisting of all ages, and 
which legislates by all its members above the 
age of twenty-one years, cannot contract for so 
long a time, because their majority will be dead 
much sooner." It is at once ludicrous, pitiful, 
and alarming to hear such rubbish from an in- 
fluential leader of the people. After listening 
to it one is not surprised to hear that in criti- 
cising the work of one of the greatest financiers 
whom the world has ever seen, Jefferson made 
but a sorry show. 

Nevertheless, being profoundly unconscious 
of his own incapacity in this department of 
knowledge, Jefferson did not refrain from free 
indulgence in such dangerous criticism. He 
was wont to say that Hamilton's financial sys- 
tem was designed to serve as a puzzle for ex- 
cluding popular understanding and inquiry. In 
1802 he wrote to Gallatin concerning Hamil- 
ton : — ^ 

' '' In order that he might have the entire govern- 
ment of his machine, he determined so to complicate 
it as that neither the President nor Congress should 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 105 

be able to understand it or to control him. He suc- 
ceeded in doing this, not only beyond their reach, 
but so that he himself could not unravel it. He gave 
to the debt in the first instance, in funding it, the 
most artificial and mysterious form he could devise. 
He then moulded up his appropriations of a number 
of scraps and remnants, many of which were nothing 
at all, and applied them to different objects in rever- 
sion and remainder, until the whole system was in- 
volved in impenetrable fog." 

He actually reiterated this declaration so late 
as 1818, long after the perfect practical success 
of that renowned system had constituted its 
unanswerable vindication. But it is not proba- 
ble that he was disingenuous in his abuse, for 
certainly Hamilton's financiering was from the 
beginning, and ever remained, a "puzzle" ut- 
terly insoluble for Mr. Jefferson. Nevertheless 
he persisted in a blind hatred and denunciation, 
eloquent enough while he confined himself to 
generalities, but, so often as he turned to more 
specific fault-finding, manifesting a surprising 
ignorance of economic principles and a hopeless 
confusion of thought. Yet a distinguished feat- 
ure of Hamilton's system was its grand, plair 
simplicity, not only in its broad outlines, but in 
matters of detail and technique. His reports to 
Congress were lucid to a degree which makes 
them comprehensible to a woman or a child. 



106 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

It befell, however, very fortunately for Jeffer« 
son, that lie had not ranch fighting to do in a 
field in which he was so little at home. By 
the time that the antagonism between him 
and Hamilton had become fairly developed, all 
the principal features of Hamilton's financial 
scheme, except only the national bank, had be- 
come complete and adopted parts of the gov- 
ernmental machinery. There was no need, 
therefore, to encounter them with argument, 
but only to revile them in a broad way. 

It has been said that Washington formed hia 
cabinet with a deliberate purpose of amalgama- 
ting parties by bringing together, as political 
comrades, the two chief representatives of op- 
posing opinions. This erroneous statement has 
been sustained by two other incorrect proposi' 
tions, namely, (1) that Jefferson was opposed 
to the Constitution which Hamilton befriended? 
a theory already shown to be untrue ; (2) that 
he and Hamilton had respectively from the be- 
ginning established policies antagonistic to each 
other, which is a palpable misrepresentation. 
For a while all was doubtful and tentative con- 
cerning both men and measures in the new gov- 
ernment, although the outcome now appears to 
have been so strictly in accordance with the 
logic of circumstances, and the native bent and 
q^ualities of the different individuals, that it is 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 107 

difficult not to carry back the later opinions and 
knowledge to a date at which neither could 
have existed. It took some time for this logic 
and these qualities to become apparent to the 
chief actors, who learned each other's w^ays of 
diinking only by degrees. Meanwhile Hamil- 
ton and Jefferson met upon a friendly footing, 
and for a time apparently entertained no sus- 
picion that they would not be able to pursue an 
harmonious policy. Indeed, there hardly were 
at first two parties or two systems of national 
politics in the country. The material for form- 
ing these lay ready at hand in the natural con- 
stitution of men's minds, but it still reposed like 
ore in the mine, half unseen and wholly un- 
shaped. There were those who always instinc- 
tively said ^Nay to all proposals coming from 
Hamilton ; but they were not an organized 
party, and had no defined policy of their own. 
It. was ver}^ gradually that what deserved to be 
called a hostile school of political thought was 
developed by the measures of the government. 
Only as the Hamiltonian structure grew piece 
by piece did the design of the builder appear 
to be much more comprehensive than had been 
at first understood. Then it was seen that 
Hamilton, besides substituting order for con- 
fusion, and solvency for insolvency, had also 
been creating a very powerful governmental 



108 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

machine ; then men saw bow deep down in the 
nation he had succeeded in setting the founda- 
tions of the government, and what extensive 
powers he had grasped for it, by construhig the 
Constitution to his purpose. They remembered 
that he theoretically believed in a monarchical 
form, and they saw that he was fast making 
this republican government not less strong and 
centralized than a limited monarchy. Then 
the men of democratic minds became combined 
together through their common alarm ; and as 
no man was more thoroughly democratic than 
Jefferson, so no man was more profoundly 
alarmed. We have but to recall, his talk about 
the charms of newspapers without a govern- 
ment, and about the excellence of the Indian 
form of polity, to conceive the horror with 
which he beheld this rapid transformation of a 
federal league into a national unit. No sooner 
did he get a notion of the ruinous course by 
which Hamilton was steering the ship, than he 
began to whisper warnings among the passen- 
gers, to organize a species of mutiny against 
6ne who, in truth, had no more exclusive right 
to the helm than he himself had. So the pe- 
riod of" confidence between Hamilton and Jef- 
ferson endured only for a limited time, and 
though they remained personal friends for a 
short while after they had become political op 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 109 

ponents, yet such accusations and personalities 
as were soon cast against each by the friends 
and followers of the other ere long destroyed 
all traces of good feeling, and they distrusted 
and hated each other, and fought and denounced 
each other bitterly, and believed every possible 
ill of each other during the rest of their lives. 

Most unfortunately for his own good fame, 
Jefferson allowed himself to be drawn by this 
feud into the preparation of the famous "Anas." 
His friends have hardly dared to undertake a 
defence of those terrible records, and the \QYy 
manner of those apologies which some have ven- 
tured to present has been fatal to their efficacy. 
The editor of the Congressional edition of Jef- 
ferson's works excuses the insertion of these 
post-mortuary slanders on the ground of edito- 
rial duty, and only reluctantly suffers himself to 
become the formal agent of their perpetuation. 
But there is no symptom that Jefferson thought 
that it was unbecoming in him to set down all 
the idle rumors, the slander and gossip received 
at third and fourth hand, the malicious tales of 
enemies, aimed at the good fame of an adver- 
sary who, at least, had never dealt him an un- 
fair blow, and to leave this odious collection of 
poisonous scraps to be published not only after 
the death of that adversary, and so late that 
no srfDstantial opportunity of contradictions by 



110 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

contemporary evidence remained, but also after 
his own death, so that he could not be called 
upon to sustain his statements, or punished for 
failure to do so. It must be confessed that the 
compilation of these unfortunate and most dis- 
reputable fragments is among the meanest acts 
recorded by history, and that it has more im- 
paired Jefferson's good name than all the other 
mistakes of his life and all the assaults of his 
enemies. Had he been able to resist the temp- 
tation to seek such an ignoble revenge on a 
dead foe, he would have lived in history as a 
man of a far more honorable spirit than can 
now be attributed to him. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SECRETARY OF STATE. — GROWTH OF DISSEN- 
SIONS. 

Jefferson was the most astute and success- 
ful politician who has yet flourished in a coun- 
try singularly and unfortunately prolific of this 
not very estimable race. But he was very much 
more than a politician, and he added something 
even to the essential traits of a statesman ; he 
was a profound thinker concerning the theory 
of government and the principles of social and 
political organization. In full accord with the 
new spirit of his era, he was a radical even 
among radicals, and a democrat of the ex- 
treme class. He could hardly bring himself to 
declare that the people should govern, because 
he had a lurking notion that there should be 
no government at all. *' The rights of man," 
the favorite slang phrase of the day, signified 
to his mind an almost entire absence of govern- 
mental control. His milder opponents called 
him a visionary, and the hopeless impractica- 
bility of many of his theories almost justified 
the term. His more bitter assailants stigma- 



112 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tized him as dishonest ; and there certainly was 
an element of disingenuousness in his charac- 
ter, a covert habit in his dealings, and a care- 
lessness concerning the truth in small matters. 
But his belief in the doctrines of human free- 
dom was a pure and deep conviction, an inerad- 
icable portion of his nature. His faith in the 
laxest form of democracy, scarcely removed 
from anarchy, stood to him in the place of a 
religion ; he preached it with a fervor, inten- 
sity, and constancy worthy of Mahomet or 
Wesley. It was an inevitable consequence of 
this vehement conviction that he regarded sup- 
porters of contrar}^ principles with distrust and 
abhorrence as wicked men, conscious promulga- 
tors of falsehood in the most important of all 
human concerns. Evil reports concerning them 
seemed so intrinsically probable as always to 
command his ready belief ; and there is no evi- 
dence that he ever refused to credit any mali- 
cious tale repeated against them, no matter how 
tainted in its origin or progress. He was ob- 
servant and quick-witted, and soon appreciated 
the skill with which Hamilton was rapidly con- 
structing a powerful centralized government. 
At Hamilton's back he beheld a disciplined 
body of able and ambitious men, some filling 
places of public trust and power, others absorb- 
ing wealth, all in one shape or another acquir* 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 113 

ing an extensive and irresistible influence in 
the body politic and social. Jefferson gazed 
upon this portentous growth with dread and re- 
pulsion. He saw enough to induce him fear- 
fully to anticipate the destruction of human 
freedom in the United States, and he suspected 
much more than he saw. As he peered into 
the mystery of the Federalist polic}^ the vision 
of monarchy took shape before his eyes and 
long remained with him, an ever present and 
vivid terror. Henceforth in every measure of 
the Secretary of the Treasury he discerned an 
artful move in the monarchical game ; at every 
social gathering of Federalists he seemed to 
hear the whispered plots of " Monocrats." If 
gentlemen, flushed with wine after dinner, 
made statements far outrunning their sober be- 
liefs, their extravagant words were borne in 
exaggerated form to Jefferson's ears, were mag- 
nified by his excited mind, and were stored 
away by him as conclusive evidence of mon- 
archical projects. The idea became a mono- 
mania with him. He wrote it to his friends, 
he jotted it down on the scraps of paper 
which afterward were gathered together for 
the " Anas ; " he mournfully bore the gossip to 
Washington, and was not to be deterred from 
repeating it, though the President told him 
that he was talking nonsense. 



114 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Long afterward, looking back upon this pe- 
riod, Jefferson declared that these dreadful 
monarcliical tendencies had been visible to 
him from the earliest days of his arrival in 
New York. 

" The President," he says, " received me cor- 
diallyi and my colleagues and the whole circle of 
principal citizens apparently with welcome. The 
courtesies of both political parties, given me as a 
stranger newly arrived among them, placed me at 
once in their familiar society. But I cannot describe 
the wonder and mortification with which the table 
conversations filled me. Politics were the chief 
topic, and a preference of kingly over republican 
government was evidently the favorite sentiment. 
An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite ; and 
I found myself, for the most part, the only advocate 
on the republican side of the question, unless among 
the guests there chanced to be some member of that 
party from the legislative houses.'* 

These sentences linger in that debatable land, 
somewhere in which exaggeration passes into 
falsehood. Evidently, in looking back down 
the long vista of nearly thirty years, Jeffer- 
son's vision was indistinct. If he had really 
been plunged into such a chilling bath of mon- 
archy at once upon his arrival in New York, he 
would have cried out promptly at the sudden 
shock, and left contemporaneous evidence of it; 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 115 

whereas, in fact, some time elapsed before he 
began to give perceptible symptoms of distress 
at the unsound political faith about him. Mon- 
archy was doubtless spoken of in a manner of- 
fensive to his democratic ears. Tlie Constitu- 
tion was a compromise wholly satisfactory to 
no one; the government was undeniably an ex- 
periment ; and its probable efficiency was often 
discussed as an open question. Sentiments of 
loyalty, pride, and affection had not had time 
to strike deep root. But Jefferson made a mis- 
take in construing an anxious doubt as equiv- 
alent to active disaffection ; and was guilty of 
a gross, though certainly an unintentional, in- 
justice in charging the advocates of a strong 
system with a design of changing the form of 
government. He was driven beyond his reason 
by foolish terrors when he spoke of Hamilton 
as the enemy of the Constitution. Every one 
has long since agreed that tlie Constitution had 
no other friend nearly so efficient as Hamilton. 
No man living had better means of knowledge 
concerning these matters than Washington, 
and no man was intellectually more capable of 
forming a correct judgment. Yet even Jeffer- 
son could not in his ''Anas" set down the lan- 
guage, which the President held to him, in 
shape more corroborative of his views than 
this : *' That with respect to the existing causes 



116 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of uneasiness, he [Washington] thought there 
were suspicions against a particular party which 
had been carried a great deal too far. There 
might be desires, but he did not believe there 
were designs, to change the form of govern- 
ment into a monarchy ; that there might be a 
few who wished it in the higher walks of life, 
particularly in the great cities, but that the 
main body of the people in the Eastern States 
were as steadily for republicanism as in the 
Southern." Making ever so slight allowance 
for refraction by reason of the transmission of 
these words throngh the Jeffersonian medium, 
we see the most inadequate basis for the vast 
pile of Jefferson's suspicion. 

But in dealing with Jefferson's conduct, it is 
not the truth which must be sought so much as 
Jefferson's idea of the truth. That he had an 
honest belief in the monarchical conspiracy, 
and in the treasonable designs of the Hamil- 
tonian clique, appears certain. Indeed, if he 
began with a faith like a grain of mustard seed, 
he must soon have caused it to expand into a 
vigorous tree, so liberally did he water it with 
the ceaseless iteration and reiteration of his own 
assertions. Frequent repetition of a statement 
assumes in time the aspect of evidence ; and 
what he said so often he probably at last came 
to believe. Unquestionably he induced others 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 117 

to believe it. For years his talk was of " mon- 
arcliists " and ** monocrats," till the reader of 
his letters and memoirs regards these people 
like the sea-serpent, feels that it would be in- 
congruous if so familiar a name did not repre- 
sent some real existence, and in a way permits 
the fiction to be asserted into a reality. There 
was an earnestness, or, as he himself would have 
said, a venom, in Jefferson's language, when he 
dealt with this topic, indicating a force and 
depth of feeling hardly to be adequately con- 
veyed by description, and which is so utterly 
inappropriate for a fable that it seems suffi- 
ciently to imply truth. 

If the purpose of the monarchical party was 
abhorrent to Jefferson, so their means appeared 
consonantly base. The decision to pay in full not 
only the principal of the domestic debt, but also 
the arrears of interest, followed by the assump- 
tion of the State indebtedness, furnished, during 
a year and a half, opportunities for speculation 
which were availed of with an ardor that has 
not been surpassed in Wall Street in our own 
generation. Naturally those who gathered in 
the securities at low prices were the men of 
capital, sagacity, and enterprise, who lived in 
cities, more especially residents in New York 
and Philadelphia, who could best forecast con- 
gressional action. Naturally, too, those who 



118 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

had most faith in Hamilton phmged most 
boldly into the venture. Jefferson, therefore, 
and others who had taken fright at the mon- 
archical scarecrow, were scandalized and alarmed 
as they saw the supporters of Hamiltonian meas- 
ures reaping a great harvest of wealth, and 
consequently of political power and social con- 
sideration. They began to charge tlie Secretary 
of the Treasury with winning adherents by 
giving opportunities of growing suddenly and 
enormously rich. That great financial system 
which, in a few brief months, had raised the 
United States from a condition of pitiful and 
ignoble bankruptcy to the status of a solvent 
power in excellent credit, wore, to Jefferson's 
suspicious eyes, the aspect of a great, complex, 
and terribl}^ efficient machine for building up 
in the State the most dangerous kind of aristo- 
cratical party. 

His dissatisfaction was further nourished by 
other measures ; the military establishment dis- 
gusted him, because he abhorred every manifes- 
tation of governmental power or control. The 
excise seemed odious, because he thought that 
all branches of internal taxation ought to be 
left to the States. But most of all the propo- 
sition for a national bank appeared to bristle 
with objectionable traits. By the time that 
Hamilton was prepared to push this project, the 



SECRETARY OF STATE. Il9 

political operation of his financial policy was 
fully appreciated and, indeed, greatly exagger- 
ated by Jefferson ; nor was it longer possible 
for the treasury party to coerce support by de- 
claring the existence of the Union to be at 
stake. This bank act involved first a question 
of law and then one of expediency. In the 
former aspect it presented much difficulty, and 
Washington asked for written opinions from his 
cabinet officers. Hamilton supported it in an 
argument which is one of the most famous of 
our state papers. Jefferson took the other side 
and argued the legal point, which alone he un- 
derstood, with much force and ability. After 
great hesitation Washington decided to sign the 
bill. He was always reluctant to interfere with 
his secretaries in their respective departments ; 
furthermore, if lie was making a constitutional 
error it could be corrected by the Supreme 
Court. In due time that tribunal sustained the 
constitutionality of the bank. Chief Justice 
Marshall delivering an opinion in which he 
added nothing to the reasoning of Hamilton. 
But though the views of Jefferson were thus 
finally rejected, it must be acknowledged that 
the question, regarded as one purely of law, 
might just as well or better have been deter- 
mined the other way. The issue was, whether 
a rigid or a liberal construction should be given 



120 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

to the general clauses of the Constitution ; and a 
bench of strict constructionists would have en- 
countered no insuperable legal obstacles in the 
way of sustaining Jefferso.i. 

But if the legal and constitutional aspects 
and the political bearing of this measure were 
easily within Jefferson's comprehension, its rela- 
tions to the finances and business of the coun- 
try were far beyond his understanding. He 
proclaimed the most ignorant theories and 
talked the most absurd twaddle about its mis- 
chievous introduction of paper money, and the 
consequent banishment of gold and silver from 
circulation. When the subscription books were 
opened, he saw with melancholy forebodings the 
capitalists rushing forward in such eager com- 
petition that much more than the capital stock 
was quickly subscribed. He wrote gloomily to 
Monroe : " Thus it is that we shall be paying 
thirteen per cent, per annum for eight millions 
of paper mone}^ instead of having that circula- 
tion of gold and silver for nothing. . . . For 
the paper emitted from the bank, seven per 
cent, profits will be received by the subscribers 
for it as bank paper, . . . and six per cent, in 
the public paper of which it is the representa- 
tive. Nor is there any reason to believe that 
either the six millions of paper or the two mil- 
lions of specie deposited will not be suffered to 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 121 

be withdrawn, and the paper thrown into cir- 
culation. The cash deposited by strangers for 
safe-keeping will probably suffice for cash de- 
mands." He was probably ignorant that such 
special deposits could not lawfully be used by 
the bank at all ; and this is only a sample of 
his general lack of knowledge in all matters of 
business. 

There is no doubt that the bank, whether 
constitutional or not, was of immense advan- 
tage to the country ; but Jefferson could see 
in it only a prolific machine for turning out 
more corrupt supporters of that dangerous and 
designing monarchist, the Secretary of the 
Treasury. Henceforth his abuse of the *' treas- 
ury party," as he called it, redoubled ; nor did 
he ever modify this opinion to the end of his 
life. In his introduction to the " Anas," in 
1818, he recorded that ''Hamilton was not only 
a monarchist, but for a monarchy bottomed on 
corruption ; " and he said that the bank was 
designed as an ''engine of influence more perma- 
nent," for corrupting the Legislature, than the 
funding system and assumption could be. Ac- 
cordingly " members of both houses," he said, 
" were constantly kept as directors who, on 
every question interesting to that institution 
or to the views of the Federal head, voted at 
the will of that head ; and, together with the 



122 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

stockholding members, could always make the 
Federal vote that of the majority." On March 
3, 1793, discussing Giles' famous resolutions of 
censure on Hamilton, he notes '' the composi- 
tion of the House, 1, of bank directors ; 2, 
holders of bank stock ; 3, stock jobbers ; 4, 
blind devotees ; 5, ignorant persons .who did 
not comprehend them ; 6, lazy and good hu- 
mored persons, who comprehended and acknowl- 
edged them, yet were too lazy to examine, or 
unwilling to pronounce censure ; the persons 
who knew these characters foresaw that, the 
three first descriptions making one third of the 
House, the three latter would make one half 
of the residue." It was thus that he endeav- 
ored to account for the ignominious failure of 
the anti-Federalist attempt to establish definite 
charges of dishonesty againt Hamilton ; and ad- 
mitted his sympathy with the blunder of that 
unfortunate and disastrous measure. 

Another thing which Jefferson beheld with 
horror was the national debt. Besides the spec- 
ulation which soon ended in widespread ruin, he 
conceived that he detected a purpose on Hamil- 
ton's part to use this debt permanently, in some 
ingenious and covert way, as a perpetual re- 
source for corrupting the Legislature. The fact 
that a portion of it had been made ''deferred" 
for a few years, convinced him that Hamilton 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 123 

intended never to let the people pay what they 
owed and get clear of obligation. Everybody, 
he said, stood in dread of the '' chickens of the 
treasury " and their '' many contrivances." " As 
the doctrine is that a public debt is a public 
blessing, so they think a perpetual one is a per- 
petual blessing, and therefore wish to make it 
so lai'ge that we can never pay it off." He 
could not be induced to renounce this suspicion, 
even when a scheme was brought forward by 
Hamilton to promote payment within a short 
period. No evidence ever could persuade him 
that Hamilton was politically honest, and no 
lapse of time could allay his prejudices. 

Washington, meanwhile, watched with pro- 
found concern the development of a spirit of 
antagonism and distrust between his chief sec- 
retaries, and the coincident organization of 
hostile political parties. He himself, elevated 
to office by the whole nation, was resolved to 
hold aloof from any party connections. But he 
could not close his ears to the ceaseless din of 
accusations, arguments, and complaints which 
the opposing leaders insisted upon making him 
hear. On May 23, 1792, Jefferson wrote to the 
President a long letter " disburthening" him- 
self concerning a '' subject of inqnietude" al- 
most coextensive witli the whole national affairs. 
He introduced his strictures by saying ''it has 



124 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

been urged," bat soon he warmed with his 
work, threw off the impersonality of this phrase, 
and openly delivered his own sentiments. A 
public debt, he said, too great to be paid before 
it would inevitably be increased by new cir- 
cumstances, had been ''artificially created by 
adding together the whole amount of the debtor 
and creditor sides of accounts ; " the finances 
had been managed not only extravagantly but 
so as to create "a corrupt squadron, deciding 
the voice of the Legislature," and manifesting 
" a disposition to get rid of the limitations im- 
posed by the Constitution ; " " that the ultimate 
object of all this is to prepare the way for a 
change from the present republican form of gov- 
ernment to that of a monarchy." He was pos- 
itive that " the corruption of the Legislature" 
would prove "the instrument for producing in 
future a king, lords, and commons, or whatever 
else those who direct it may choose." " The 
owers of the debt are in the southern and the 
holders of it in the northern division," so that 
a secti<mal distribution exists fraught with im- 
minent danger of dissolution of the Union. He 
is so convinced that nothing save Washington's 
contiiuiance in office can avert, this peril, that 
he lays aside his objections to a second term, 
and implores the President not to think of re- 
tiring. 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 125 

These same apprehensions he reiterated 
whenever occasion offered. On July 10, 1792, 
he urged upon tlie President "that the na- 
tional debt was unnecessarily increased and 
that it had furnished the means of corrupting 
both branches of the Legislature ; that . . . 
there was a considerable squadron in both, 
whose votes were devoted to the paper and 
stock-jobbing interests, . . . that on examining 
the votes of these men they would be found 
uniformly for every treasury measure, and that 
as most of these measures had been carried by 
small majorities, they were carried by these 
very votes." 

Two or three months earlier he had told 
Washington that all existing discontents were 
to be attributed to the Treasury Department : 

" that a system had there been contrived for delug- 
ing the States with paper money instead of gold and 
silver, for withdrawing our citizens from the pur- 
suits of commerce, manufactures, building, and other 
branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves 
and their capitals in a species of gambling, destruc- 
tive of morality, and which had introduced its poison 
into the government itself. That it was a fact . . . 
that particular members of the Legislature, while 
those laws were on the carpet, had feathered their 
nests with paper, had then voted for the laws ; . . . 
that they had now brought forwiid a proposition far 



126 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

beyond any one ever yet advanced, and to which the 
eyes ot" many were turned as the decision which was 
to let us know whether we live under a limited or an 
unlimited government." 

This reference bore upon that part of Hamil- 
ton's famous report on manufactures '' which, 
under color of giving bounties for the encour- 
ao-ement of particular manufactures," was de- 
signed to grasp for Congress control of all 
matters " which they should deem for the pub- 
lic welfare and which [were] susceptible of the 
application of money," as certainly few matters 
were not. On October 1, 1792, he sa3^s that 
he told Washington 

" that though the people were sound, there were a 
numerous sect who had monarchy in contemplation ; 
that the Secretary of the Treasury was one of these. 
That I had heard him say that this Constitution was 
a shilly-shally thing of mere milk and water, which 
could not last and was only good as a step to some- 
thing better. That when we reflected that he had 
endeavored in the Convention to make an English 
Constitution of it, and when failing in that we saw 
all his measures tending to bring it to the same 
thing, it was natural for us to be jealous ; and par- 
ticularly when we saw that these measures had es- 
tablished corruption in the Legislature, where there 
was a squadron devoted to the nod of the Treasury, 
[loing whatever he had directed and ready to do what 
he should direct." 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 127 

On February 7, 1793, he again said that the 
ill-feeling at the South was due to a belief ip 
the existence " of a corrupt squadron of voters 
in Congress, at the command of the Treasury," 
sufficiently numerous to make the laws the 
reverse of what they would have been had only 
honest votes been cast. 

It was seldom that Jefferson was at the 
trouble to aim a shaft directly at any one save 
Hamilton, but once, May 8, 1791, he took an 
insidious side-sbot at John Adams. "I am 
afraid," he wrote to Washington, "the indiscre- 
tion of a printer has committed me with my 
friend, Mr. Adams, for whom, as one of the 
most honest and disinterested men alive, I have 
a cordial esteem, increased by long habits of 
concurrence in opinion in the days of his re- 
publicanism ; and even since his apostasy to 
liereditary monarchy and nobility, though we 
differ, we differ as friends should do." 

What he said to Washington, he said and 
wrote also to others. So early as February 4, 
1791, he wrote to Colonel Mason, that, "It 
cannot be denied that we have among us a sect 
wlio believe it [the English Constitution] to 
contain whatever is perfect in human institu- 
tions; that the members of this sect have, many 
of tliem, names and offices which stand high in 
the estimation of our countrymen." July 29, 



128 THOMAS JEFFERSON. • 

1791, writing to Thomas Paine, he speaks of a 
''sect here, high in name, but small in num- 
bers," who had been indulging a false hope 
that the people were undergoing conversion 
" to the doctrine of kings, lords, and com- 
mons ; " but he politely adds that this delu- 
sion has been "checked at least," and the 
people ''confirmed in their good old faith," by 
the recent publication of Paine's " Rights of 
Man." To Lafayette he writes, June 16, 1792: 
"A sect has shown itself among us who declare 
they espoused our new Constitution, not as a 
good and sujficient thing in itself, but only as 
a step to an English Constitution, the only 
thing good and sufficient in itself in their eye. 
. . . Too many of these stock-jobbers and king- 
jobbers have come into our Legislature ; or, 
rather, too many of our Legislature have be- 
come stock-jobbers and king-jobbers." 

During this prolonged stress of anxiety and 
alarm, Jetferson, who was unquestionably a sin- 
cere patriot and honest in his opinions, sought 
encouragement in such evidence of republican 
sentiment as he could discover in the mass of 
the people. His faith and reliance were always 
in numbers, and in the vast bulk of the popu- 
lation, rather than in the politicians and upper 
classes of society, who appeared more promi- 
nently upon the surface. Accordingly he never 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 129 

missed an opportunity of dropping his plummet 
into the mighty depths beneath ; and if he dis- 
covered those profound currents to be in accord 
with his own tendencies, as he always expected 
to and generally did, he refreshed his wearied 
spirit with the instinctive anticipation that 
these would control the course of the country 
at no distant time. Herein lay his deep wis- 
dom : he enjoyed a political vision penetrating 
deeper dow^n into the inevitable movement of 
popular goverimient, and further forward into 
the future trend of free institutions, than was 
possessed by any other man in public life in his 
day. He had sound confidence that the multi- 
tude, led by a single able strategist like him- 
self, was sure in time to outvote and overpower 
the much smaller body of educated men who 
understood and admired the statesmanship of 
Hamilton. 

But concerning this confidence of Jefferson in 
the people, which must be so constantly borne 
in mind in order to comprehend his character, 
some observations should be made. Not merely 
did he appreciate and foresee their invincible 
power in politics, but he had perfect faith in 
the desirability of the exercise of that power ; 
be anticipated that in this exercise the masses 
would always show wisdom and discrimination, 
that they would select the most able and most 



130 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

honest men in the country to preside over the 
national affairs, men like himself and Mr. Mad- 
ison. It was a delightful ideal of a body politic 
which he had before his eyes, wherein a huge 
volume of human poverty and ignorance would 
be always pleased to recognize and set over it- 
self a few exalted individuals of loft}^ character 
and distinguished intelligence. In bis day it 
was still a question how povert}' and ignorance 
would behave in politics ; and it was his firm 
expectation that they would behave with mod- 
esty and self-abnegation. It w^as a kindly belief, 
but indicative of the enthusiast. He deserves 
the praise of thinking better of his fellow-men 
than they deserve. If he could see what sort 
of men have in fact satisfied the people since 
his doctrines have become developed, he \vould 
probably greatly modify them. His notion of a 
democratic polity had as its main principle that 
the multitude should select the best men, and 
after that expectation had been once disproved 
by fair and sufficient experience, he would al- 
most undoubtedly have abandoned his doctrine 
in disappointment and indignation. But though 
this is matter of speculation, and may be correct 
or not, one thing at least is certain, that democ- 
racy has not worked as Jefferson expected it to 
work, and that the two generations, or more, 
which have passed away since his day have 



SECRETARY OE STATE. 131 

brought forth results wliich would have aston- 
ished and shocked him, if presented as the out- 
growth of liis teachings. 

It was the custom of that period for men 
holding high official positions to contribute 
anonymous political communications to the 
newspapers, — a custom which, among some 
advantages, possessed the serious disadvantage 
that out of it arose much suspicion, ill-blood, 
and personal resentment. The misunderstand- 
ing with John Adams, already referred to, liad its 
origin in an episode of this kind, wherein Jef- 
ferson made an absurd, though natural, blunder. 
Adams' " Discourses of Davila " appear to-day 
as stupid reading as one could discover in a 
large library; but in the times of which we are 
writing, several persons read them through ; and 
readers of democratic proclivities were even 
more incensed than bored by them. The doc- 
trines therein proclaimed were mercilessly cas- 
tigated in Paine's " Rights of Man," of which 
it so happened that " the only copy " in the 
United States was sent to Jefferson, with the 
request that, after reading it, he would "send 
it to a Mr. J. B. Smith, who had asked it for 
his brother to reprint it." " Being an utter 
stranger to J. B. Smith," sa}'s Jefferson, " I 
wrote a note to explain to him why I (a 
stranger to him) sent him a pamphlet ; . • . 



132 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and to take off a little of the dryness of the 
note, I wrote that I was glad to find it was to 
be reprinted ; that something would at length 
be publicly said against the political heresies 
which had lately sprung up among us," etc. 
To Jefferson's "great astonishment," the printer 
"prefixed" this note to the volume. At once 
the Federalist writers settled like a hive of 
hornets upon the unfortunate sponsor of " Tom " 
Paine, and a peculiarly vigorous sting was sent 
in by one Publicola. Jefferson hastened to 
write two letters of explanation to Mr. Adams, 
deprecating any quarrel, and speaking with 
especial animosity and contempt of the mis- 
chiei-makins: Publicola. Little did he think 
with what a freight he had laden his peaceful 
missives, for Publicola was none other than 
John Quincy Adams himself, whose family 
were very proud of this early filial exploit. 
Such were some of the perils of this darkling 
habit of anonymous newspaper writing. Isaac 
had actually been made a peace-offering to 
Abraham. 

But difficulties much more grave than such 
comical errors were often promoted by the 
newspapers of the day. Shortly after Jefferson 
was appointed Secretary of State, he received 
from Madison a letter commending for a clerk- 
ship one Philip Freneau, a democratic scribbler 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 133 

of verses rather better than most Americans 
could write in those days. Jefferson had then 
no vacancy ; but a little later he found a '^ clerk- 
ship for foreign languages," carrying only the 
petty salary of ''two hundred and fifty dollars 
a year," but giving '' so little to do as not to 
interfere with any other calling" which the 
clerk might choose to carry on. In a very kind 
note Jefferson conferred this modest position 
upon Freneau, and in so doing wrote the first 
stanza in a long Iliad of troubles. For it so 
happened that the '' other calling " which the 
ill-paid translating clerk selected for eking out 
his subsistence w^as the editorship of a news- 
paper ; and it further so happened that Mr. 
Freneau had a zealous faith in the chief of his 
own department, and a correspondingly intense 
aversion towards the rival Secretary of the 
Treasury. Hitherto Fenno's "Gazette" had 
represented ''the Treasury" without an equal 
opponent; but the new "National Gazette" 
now sustained the Department of State with 
not inferior ardor, with an appalling courage 
in the use of abusive language, and with terrible 
enterprise in preferring outrageous accusations. 
For Freneau had not only extreme convictions, 
but a trenchant pen. Hamilton and his friends 
were soon wincing beneath his attacks ; but 
they preferred to pass by the writer as a being 



134 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

too insignificant for their wnith, and to de- 
nounce his alleged patron and protector, the 
Secretary of State, in person. He it was, they 
said, who insidiously furnished material and in- 
formation to the disaffected and scurrilous sheet 
which was issued, as they cliose to declare, al- 
most actually from his department. He was 
responsible for its malicious temper, for its 
reckless aspersions of his honorable colleagues, 
and even of the President himself. Jefferson 
angrily repelled these assertions, declaring that 
he had nothing whatsoever to do, directly or 
indirectly, with the management of the paper; 
but at the same time having the courage not 
to conceal that he thought the "Gazette" to 
be in the main sound in its doctrines, and 
doing good work. He neither dismissed nor 
rebuked Freneau. It is reasonable to suppose 
that a rebuke would have been effectual ; but 
his obligation to give it is by no means clear. 
His asseveration that he did not interfere, even 
indirectly, in the conduct of the sheet, derives 
credit from the probability that, if he had in- 
terfered, he would have been sufficiently wise 
and politic to discourage the personal attacks 
upon Washington, which he must have seen to 
be blunders. But in a. broad and very forcible 
way the paper advocated his views ; and in 
return he generally spoke well of it, and was 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 135 

interested in its success. It is difficult to say 
that he was positively wrong in this. Pos- 
sibly he occasionally " inspired " it, to use the 
ingenious, indefinite slang of our day ; but it 
was going too far when he was treated as a 
responsible member of the editorial staff. 
Whether it was becoming in him to retain in 
his department a writer whose daily business 
was to defame the policy and character of a 
colleague in the cabinet, is a part of the gen- 
eral question, soon to be discussed, of the rela- 
tionship which those colleagues were bound, 
under the peculiar circumstances then existing, 
to maintain towards each other and their chief. 
At last, in August, 1792, Hamilton was pro- 
voked into coming down to the lists and him- 
self taking a hand in the fray. He descended 
like a giant among the pigmies, and startled all 
by his sudden apparition in the guise of " An 
American." Though he thus wore his visor 
down, every one at once knew the blows of 
that terrible hand. In his first article he bit- 
terly assailed Jefferson for retaining his office 
and at the same time continuing his connection 
with Freneau. Further, he charged Jefferson 
with disloyalty to the Constitution and the 
administration. Jefferson Avas absent when 
this powerful diatribe appeared ; but Freneau 
printed an affidavit, saying that he had had 



136 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

no negotiations with Jefferson concerning the 
establisliment of his paper, and that Jefferson 
had never controlled it in the least, or written 
or dictated a line for it. Hamilton, in replica- 
tion, contem[)tuously declined to seek any other 
antagonist than Jefferson himself. Plis argu- 
ments were powerful, and a great wa-ath in- 
spired his pen. But defenders of the Secretary 
of State were not lacking; and Hamilton, being 
once in the field, bad perforce to lay about 
him among a throng of small assailants, for 
whose destruction he cared little, while Jeffer- 
son himself, wath exasperating caution, declined 
to be drawn into the furious arena. 

Washington beheld this sudden melee with 
extreme annoyance, and made a noble, pathetic, 
hopeless effort to close a chasm which the forces 
of nature herself had opened. He wrote to each 
Secretary a short letter of personal appeal, 
breathing a beautiful spirit of concord arid 
patriotism. From each he received a note- 
worthy and characteristic response, courteous 
and considerate towards himself, but showing 
plainly the impossibility of harmony between 
two representatives so adverse in intellectual 
constitution. Hamilton briefly justified what 
he had- done, and said that he must now go 
through with this conflict, but that lie would 
try not to become so involved again. Jefferson 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 137 

sent an elaborate argument, defending himself 
and his party, and arraigning the policy and 
the character of the Federalists. The letter is 
such an ample exposition of the anti-Federalist 
tt'nets, such a forcible apologia of the writer, 
that it ought not to be mutilated by excerpts ; 
yet it is much too long for reproduction here. 

Jefferson began by saying that when he "em- 
barked in the government, it was with a deter- 
mination to intermeddle not at all with the 
Legislature, and as little as possible with my 
co-departments." For the most part he had 
scrupulously observed this wise resolution, 
though he bitterly recalled his share in the 
assumption measure. Into this '' I was duped 
by the Secretary of the Treasur}^, and made a 
tool for forwarding his schemes, not then suffi- 
ciently understood by me ; and of all the errors 
of my political life this has occasioned me the 
deepest regret." He acknowledged that he 
had " utterly, in his private conversations, dis- 
approved of the system of the Secretary of 
the Treasury," which "flowed from principles 
adverse to liberty, and was calculated to under- 
mine and demolish the republic, by creating 
an influence of his department over the mem- 
bers of the Legislature." He then developed 
fully his favorite theory of a " corrupt squad- 
ron" in Congress, whose votes could always 



138 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

turn the scale, who were under the command 
of the Secretary of tlie Treasury, and were by 
him used " for the purpose of subverting, step 
by step, the principles of the Constitution, 
which he had so often dechired to be a thing 
of nothing which must be changed." He com- 
plained that his own abstinence from interfer- 
ence with the Treasury Department had not 
been reciprocated by Hamilton, who had re- 
peatedly intermeddled in the foreign affairs, 
and always in tlie way of friendship to England 
and hostility to France, a policy '' exactly the 
reverse " of that of Jefferson, and, as Jefferson 
believed, also of that of Washington. He then 
passed to the attacks made by Hamilton, as 
"An American," in Fenno's "Gazette." For 
the charge of disloyalty to the Constitution, he 
denied that he had been more an opponent of 
the Constitution than Hamilton, and showed 
that his objections to it had been vindicated by 
the subsequent adoption of amendments almost 
wholly coextensive with his criticism ; whereas 
Hamilton had been dissatisfied because " it 
wanted a king and house of lords." Hamilton, 
he said, wished the national debt " never to be 
paid, but always to be a thing wherewith to 
corrupt and manage the Legislature," whereas 
he himself would like to see it ''paid to- 
morrow." Still harping on corruption, he 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 139 

said : " I have never inquired what number of 
sons, relatives, and friends of senators, repre- 
sentatives, printers, or other useful partisans, 
Colonel Hamilton has provided for among the 
hundred clerks of his department, the tiiousand 
excisemen at his nod, and spread over the 
Union ; nor could ever have imagined that the 
man who has the shufltlincy of millions back- 
wards and forwards from paper into mone)-, and 
money into papei-, from Europe to America, 
and America t^o Europe ; the dealing out of 
treasury secrets among his friends in what time 
Hud measure he pleases ; and who never slips 
an occasion of making friends with his means, 
— that such an one, I say, would have brought 
forward a charge against me for having ap- 
pointed the poet Freneau a translating clerk to 
my office, with a salary of two hundred and 
fifty dollars a year." He tells the stor}^ of the 
starting of Freneau's paper in a way to excul- 
pate himself ; and, concerning its subsequent 
conduct, saj^s : " I can protest, in the presence 
of Heaven, that I never did, by myself or any 
other, say a syllable, nor attempt any kind of 
influence. I can furtlur protest, in the same 
awful Presence, that I never did, by myself or 
any other, directly or indirectly, write, dictate, 
or procure any one sentence or sentiment to be 
inserted in his or any other gazette to which 



140 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

my name was not affixed, or that of my office." 
He concluded: "When I came into this office 
it was with a resolution to retire from it as 
soon as I could with decency. It pretty early 
appeared to me that the proper moment would 
be the first of those epochs at which the Con- 
stitution seems to have contemplated a peri- 
odical change or renewal of the public ser- 
vants. ... I look to that period with the 
longing of a wave-worn mariner who has at 
length the land in view, and ^hall count the 
days and hours which still lie between me and 
it." But, he says, though he has a '' thorough 
disregard for the honors and emoluments of 
office," he has a great value " for the esteem 
of his countrymen ; and, conscious of having 
merited it," he " will not suffer his retirement 
to be clouded by the slanders of a man whose 
history, from the moment at which history can 
stoop to notice him, is a tissue of machinations 
against the liberty of the country which has not 
only received and given him bread, but heaped 
its honors on his head." For himself, he declares 
his belief , with obvious innuendo, that the peo- 
ple do not regard him as "an enemy of the 
republic, nor an intriguer against it, nor a 
waster of its revenue, nor prostitutor of it to 
the purposes of corruption." 

The letter is a characteristic and very re- 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 141 

markable document ; it deserves to have become 
as famous as a great speech, so plausible was it 
in defensive argument, so imposing in denunci- 
ation, so bitter in personal invective, so skilful 
and yet earnest in its interweaving of truth 
with gross misrepresentations, so spirited at 
once and pathetic in its protestations of recti- 
tude. It contained some falsehoods, yet it 
was honestly written. It did not induce Wash- 
ington to abjure Hamilton, but it proved to 
him tliat each side was too much in the right 
to yield, and that each had such an honest con- 
fidence in the wickedness of the other, that 
reconciliation was hopeless'; matters had gone 
far beyond that stage when Jefferson had £he 
audacity to talk of the moment when history 
could first stoop to notice his distinguished 
rival, and could actually twit Hamilton with 
having had bread '' given " to him by the coun- 
try I 

Federalist historians have always lost their 
tempers over tliis most aggravating epistle, and 
are accustomed to compare the replies of the 
two secretaries vastly to Jefferson's discredit. 
Hamilton, they say, did not malign his oppon- 
ent in private correspondence with their com- 
mon chief. But the fact that Hamilton did 
not see fit to write an elaborate, argumentative, 
offensive and defensive letter does not establish 



142 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

the fact that Jefferson ought not to have done 
so. Neither, when writing, knew what course, 
the other would pursue in this respect, so that 
no unfair advantage was taken. It may bo 
well suspected that the real cause of the Fed- 
eralist vexation is, that Hamilton left no cor- 
rective antidote to Jefferson's powerful docu- 
ment. In the long struggle between Hamilton 
and Jefferson, the Hamiltonians always inti- 
mated that Jefferson was a darkling underhand 
antagonist, who would covertly traduce and 
vilify, and employ underlings to take the re- 
sponsibilities and encounter the perils which he 
himself should have assumed. Thus they de- 
pict him as a contemptible and cowardly char- 
acter ; but, as it seems, with a great exaggera- 
tion of the truth, if not altogether without any 
truth. Hamilton was by his nature a fighter, 
ardent, defiant, self-confident, always ready to 
change blows with one or with a host, half 
winning victory by his sanguine anticipation of 
it. Jefferson on the other hand was as non- 
combatant as a Quaker, seldom and reluctantly 
entering a debate either in words or in print. 
But his detractors were of opinion that if he 
would not make a political speech, he ought not 
to talk politics with his friends after dinner ; if 
he would not write political articles for the 
newspapers, he ought never to put an expres- 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 143 

sion of political opinion into his correspond- 
ence. They laid down for him an absurd rule 
which was followed by no man in those days, or 
indeed in any days. It does not appear that 
Jefferson ever concealed his s(intiments, or 
that he often conciliated any man in public and 
defamed him in private ; observing these prin- 
ciples, he had a perfect right to declare his 
beliefs about public men and measures, in con- 
versation or in letter-writing, to any person 
whomsoever. 

So long as the department of national finances, 
the liquidation of the national debt and pro- 
vision for its payment, the establishment of 
the bank and of the mint, the arrangement of 
the tariff, and the organization of taxes consti- 
tuted the chief business of the government, it 
was impossible for Jefferson to encounter Ham- 
ilton with any hope of success. For even if 
Hamilton's financiering had been as unsound as 
in fact it was sound, Jefferson was too much of 
a novice in such matters to expose any errors. 
In other matters, also, Hamilton enjoyed great 
influence and prestige induced by his admirable 
managenfent of his preeminently important 
department. It was not without reason that 
Jefferson complained that his colleague en- 
croached on his functions Hamilton had the 



144 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

mind of a ruler, and could not help placing 
himself substantially at the head of the nation, 
with a policy on every subject and an uncon- 
querable habit of making that policy felt. It 
was not surj^rising thjit Jefferson became irri- 
tated and discouraged ; for it was evident that 
he had no reasonable hope of holding his own 
unless the struggle could be transferred to some 
new field better suited to his abilities. For- 
tunately for him, precisely this movement was 
already going rapidly forward. Just about the 
time when the opponents of the Secretary of the 
Treasury had become consolidated and trained 
by the severe lessons of repeated disasters, and 
when Jefferson's position as their leader had 
become universally admitted, questions of do- 
mestic policy began to be superseded by the 
foreign relations of the United States. The 
new problems soon took such shape that Jeffer- 
son and his followers regained courage. They 
had become an organized party and had as- 
sumed a good partj^ name ; known at first only 
in a negative way as anti-Federalists, they had 
seized upon the monarchical heresy as afford- 
ing them a better designation, and now signi- 
fied their loyalty to the Constitution by calling 
themselves Republicans. Their doctrine, how- 
ever, was properly democratic ; and very soon 



SECRETARY OF STATE. I45 

a portion of their party described itself as the 
deraocrat.c.republicans, and then of this double 
phrase the less appropriate half was lopped off 
and the name of " Democrats " has ever since 
been permanently retained. 



CHAPTER X. 

SECRETARY OF STATE : FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 

It was the wild gales of the French Revolu- 
tion, whirling with hardly diminished fury 
across the Atlantic, which at last filled the 
swelling sails of the Democrats. The story of 
the political excitement caused in the United 
States by that momentous upheaval is a tale so 
much more than twice told, that in this small 
volume it may properly be treated with a brev- 
ity disproportioned to its great importance. In 
its earlier stages the movement was watched 
with intense and unanimous approbation by all 
persons in this country. But as events went on 
this harmony vanished ; men of conservative 
temper and orderly instincts began to look dis- 
trustfully upon anarchy, bloodshed, and that 
miscalled equalization wdiich was really a turn- 
ing upside down. Hamilton and the Federal- 
ists inclined to repudiate a sister republic of 
such doubtful aspect, and to consider French 
republicanism not much more akin to Ameri- 
can republicanism than the faithless wife in a 
French novel is like the puritan matron of New 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 147 

England. Jefferson, on the other hand, re- 
mained steadfast in his adhesion to the cause of 
the people, even the worst and lowest people, 
in a land which he loved scarcely less ardently 
than his own. In his letters from France he 
had vigorously expressed his hearty abhorrence 
of the universal and hideous wretchedness be- 
gotten of the monarchical system. It was now 
impossible for him to-be appalled by the most 
destructive storms which promised to clear the 
guilt-laden atmosphere. With him felt the great 
mass of the American people, who maintained 
a constant good-will towards the revolutionists, 
even through the massacres of September, and 
applauded in turn Lafayette and Danton, the 
Girondins who overthrew the old monarchy, 
and the Jacobins who overthrew the Girondins. 
This extravagant ardor was early raised to 
the frenzy point by the French declaration of 
war against England, which country was still 
profoundly hated by nine tenths of the inhabit- 
ants of the United States. With mingled alarm 
and disgust Hamilton and his party saw this 
mighty wave of passion sweeping across the 
land, nor were they reassured at beholding 
prominent on the top of this resistless surge 
the Secretary of State, sustained in triumph by 
the vast force of popular numbers. Jefferson, 
on the other hand, was naturally well content; 



148 THOMAS JEFFERSON: 

he always understood the dynamics of politics, 
and now while Hamilton marshalled the intel- 
ligence and wealth of the country into an army 
of political followers, unequalled in the quality 
of its material by any party which has ever 
existed in the country, Jefferson gazed with in- 
stinctive confidence over the sea of ignorant but 
countless faces upturned towards himself. He 
knew that with dull numbers at his back he 
could in time outmatch the educated but too 
thin ranks of federalism. He was quite right. 
In a much blinder way, because he was intel- 
lectually immeasurably below Jefferson, but 
with the same sure instinct, Andrew Jackson 
afterward repeated the triumphs of Jefferson by 
the aid of the same classes of the community. 
So now at last, after having faithfully endured 
through the disconsolate period of domestic 
politics, the Republican leader seemed in a fair 
way to gain the upper hand when foreign poli- 
tics usurped the attention of every one. Had 
it only been a measured Gallic craze instead of 
absolute madness that ruled the hour, he might 
not have been obliged even to abide the inter- 
val of John Adams' incumbency, but might 
have been the second President of the United 
States. 

On April 4, 1793, news arrived in the United 
States that France had proclaimed war against 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 149 

England. Five da^'s later Genet, the new 
French minister, landed at Charleston. An 
anxious and stormy period was opened for the 
administration by these two events. The duty, 
which was also the honest wish, of the govern- 
ment to mamtain a strict neutrality was of un- 
usual difficulty for many reasons. (1.) There 
were entangling treaty obligations towards 
France, which bound the United States to 
guarantee her in the maintenance of her West 
Indian islands in any defensive war ; and nice 
questions were : whether the war declared by 
France should be considered, as she claimed, 
defensive ; also, whether treaties entered into 
with the royal government were binding to- 
wards its successor. (2.) Both combatants soon 
manifested a resolution to have no neutrals ; 
and each, committing outrageous infractions of 
neutral rights, treated any nation not taking 
part with it as being against it. (3.) Genet 
cherished and carried out, in the most unscrupu- 
lous and energetic way, the deliberate purpose 
of embroiling the United States with Great 
Britain. (4.) Very few persons in the United 
States really had the neutral temper ; Hamil- 
ton led an English party, Jefferson led a French 
party, and the passions which, in those strange 
times, set all Europe aflame blazed with equal 
fury in the United States. 



150 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

A cabinet meeting decided, as was inevitable, 
that a proclamation substantially of neutrality 
should be issued by the President. Jefferson 
succeeded in bringing about that the word 
*' neutrality " should not appear in it, so that 
the document might not be avowedly, and in 
terms, what it was in fact. He thought it bet- 
ter to hold back the formal annunciation of 
neutrality, as a " thing worth something to the 
powers at war, that they would bid for it, and 
we might reasonably ask a price, the broadest 
privileges of jieutral nations." His policy, pos- 
sibly open to some criticism in point of princi- 
ple, was imperfectly adopted. The paper, as it 
was finally issued, did not half please him. To 
his chagrin, he had not been permitted to draft 
it, though it fell naturally within his depart- 
ment, the more neutral temper of Attorney- 
General Randolph being deemed better fitted 
for the task. In cabinet divisions Knox always 
gave his vote to Hamilton ; Randolph so often 
gave his to Jefferson as to provoke that secre- 
tary extremely by his unwillingness always to 
do so. He seemed so near to the character of 
!i thorough-going partisan, that he was more 
hated for not being entirely so than thanked 
for the partial allegiance which he actually ren- 
dered. Jefferson said: "He always contrives 
to agree in principle with me, but in conclu- 



SECRET AJtY OF STATE. 151 

sion with the other; " and again, '' The fact is, 
that he has generally given his principles to 
the one party, and his practice to the other, tlie 
oyster to one, the shell to the other. Unfortu- 
nately the shell was generally the lot of liis 
friends, the French and Republicans, and the 
oyster of their antagonists." Hamilton thought 
much worse than tliis of Randolph. But the 
truth is that the Attorney-General was a clear- 
headed, dispassionate adviser, of an excellent 
shrewdness in matters of international law, 
and, as in the present instance, much more 
often right than either of the extremists be- 
tween whom he stood. The dissatisfied Secre- 
tary of State, however, wrote in disgust to 
Madison : *' I dare say you will have judged 
from the pusillanimity of the proclamation 
from whose pen it came. A fear lest any af- 
fection should be discovered is distinguishable 
enough. This base fear will produce the very 
evil they wish to avoid. For our constituents, 
seeing that the government does not express 
their mind, perhaps rather leans the other way, 
are coming forward to express it themselves." 

This prophecy was true enough. Before 
Genet left Charleston he had dispatched priva- 
teers and issued officers' commissions ; and the 
very vessel in which he arrived was taking 
prizes in American waters before he had been 



152 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

presented to the President. Yet in spite of 
these strange doings, his slow progress north- 
ward was made through exulting and triumph- 
ant crowds, who set no bounds to their French 
ecstasies. He was received at a civic banquet 
in Philadelphia at which the guests sang the 
Marseillaise, passed around the red liberty cap, 
and hailed each other as "citizen." Jefferson, 
though wisely refraining from attendance at 
these ceremonies, watched them with perfect 
sympathy, and with sanguine and swelling in- 
dignation against Hamilton and the British 
party. Henceforth to the abusive epithets of 
" monarchists " and " monocrats " he added 
those of " Anglomaniacs " and " Anglomen," 
as conveying at least an equal measure of re- 
proach. He described to Monroe with pleas- 
ure, and without a word of reprobation, the 
boisterous throngs which hailed the French 
vVmbuscade, when she brought in as a prize 
The Grange, captured in flagrant defiance of 
international law actually inside the capes of 
Delaware. '' I wish we may be able," he said, 
*' to repress the spirit of the people Avithin the 
limits of a fair neutrality. In the mean time 
Hamilton is panic-struck if we refuse our 
breech to every kick which England may 
choose to give it. He is for proclaiming at 
once the most abject principles, such as would 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 153 

invite and merit habitual insults ; and, indeed, 
every inch of ground must be fought in our 
councils to desperation, in order to hold up 
even a sneaking neutrality ; for our votes are 
generally two and a half against one and a 
half," — another slap at Randolph's even-mind- 
.edness. He adds with evident satisfaction that 
immense bankruptcies have taken place in Eng- 
land, ''the last advices made them amount to 
eleven millions sterling and still going on." 
By like remarks the antipathy which he enter- 
tained for the enemies of France is constantly 
made to appear. December 15, 1792, he writes 
triumphantly : " We have just received the glo- 
rious news of the Prussian army being obliged 
to retreat, and hope it will be followed by some 
proper catastrophe on them. This news has 
given wry faces to our monocrats here, but sin- 
cere joy to the great body of our citizens. It 
arrived only in the afternoon of yesterday, and 
the bells were rung, and some illuminations 
took place in the evening." June 28, 1793, he 
cheerfully anticipates that the English bank- 
ruptcies will '' proceed to the length of an uni- 
versal crash of their paper." England, he says, 
"is emitting assignats also, that is to say, 
exchequer bills . . . not founded on land as 
the French assignats are, but on pins, thread, 
buckles, hops, and whatever else you will pawn 



154 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

in the exchequer of double the estimated value. 
But we all know that five millions of such stuff, 
forced for sale on the maiket of London where 
there will be neither cash nor credit, will not 
pay storage. This paper must rest then ulti- 
mately on the credit of the nation, as the rest 
of their public paper does, and will sink with 
that." 

On the other hand, no acts of the French 
shocked Jefferson's sensibilities or weakened 
his faith. December 19, 1792, he notes with 
satisfaction tliat his part}^ are '' taking to them- 
selves the name of Jacobins, which, two months 
ago, was fixed upon them b}^ way of stigma." 
A few days later he writes, concerning the 
massacres committed by that infamous French 
Club, that the " struggle " was " necessary," 
though in it " many guilty persons fell without 
the forms of trial, and with them some inno- 
cent. These I deplore as much as anybody, 
and shall deplore some of them to the day of 
my death. But I deplore them as I should 
have done had they fallen in battle. It was 
necessary to use the arm of the people, — a 
machine not quite so blind as balls and bombs, 
but blind to a certain degree. . . . My own 
affections have been deeply wounded by some 
of the martyrs to tliis cause; but rather than 
it should have failed, I would have seen half 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 155 

the earth desohited •, were tliere but an Adam 
and Eve left in every country, and left free, it 
would be better than as it now is ; " with much 
more of like tenor. 

Yet, amid all this gratification, he was 
obliged, with unwilling hand, to write to the 
French minister that The Grange had been un- 
lawfully captured and must be returned ; also 
he had to check many other enterprises of that 
enthusiast, and to demand much reparation. 
Still to his credit it must be said, that, however 
distasteful these duties were, he performed them 
all fairly enough. Nevertheless, it is true tliat 
he could not bring himself to express any posi- 
tive indignation at one of the most lawless and 
insulting acts ever committed towards a neutral 
nation ; and in the many letters which he was 
obliged to write to Genet concerning the equip- 
ment, dispatch, and subsequent conduct of the 
Franco-American privateers, he invariably used 
language as colorless as if he had been inditing 
a treatise on international law. 

When Genet presented his letters of cre- 
dence, Jefferson Avrote to Madison ; " It is im- 
possible for anything to be more affectionate, 
more magnanimous, than the purport of his 
mission. . . . He offers everything and asks 
nothing." But the laggard Virginian post 
could hardly have brought this letter to Madi- 



156 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

son's hands before even its writer w . 
had to reverse the last-qaoted sent' 
in truth, Genet very promptly made u 

that he came to offer nothing ?, ,p 

everything ; and that his missir of 

being one of unalloyed affectior .an- 

imity, was really to bring all tliti ressouicis of 
the American people to the ai^? <'>! VrKw% and 
to transmute the neutral pc ; : Jnited 

States into bases of naval against 

England. He had a trun^ m. only of 

blank letters of marque f ; ^ ( rs to be 

unlawfully equipped in but even 

blank commissions, navii ua iitary, for 

American citizens who .-h'^'^Jd ■ /uit men to 
take part in the war. ven dared to 

set up French admirally ii *. in this coun- 

try, actually conferring on 'rench consuls 

the power to try and cond such prizes as 

the French privatee s should capture and bring 
in. Jefferson was obliged t^? inform him that 
these doings were all wrong and utterly intol- 
erable. It was a disagreeable duty, but if the 
-^.retary wrote bis letters dispassionately, he 
3ast wrote them plaiidy and manfully,, and 
ited himself with advancing on the French 
the cabinet such arguments upon other 
.o opportunity made possible from time 
^ time. For example, a most urgent request 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 157 

was preferred by the needy revolutionary gov- 
ernment of France that the United States wouhl 
pay, in anticipation of maturity, the indebted- 
ness incurred to France during the late war for 
American independence. In October, 1792, Jef- 
ferson wrote to Gouverneur Morris, then min- 
ister to France, that payment must be tem- 
porarily suspended, *' since there is no person 
authorized to receive it and give us an unob- 
jectionable acquittal." But on June 6, 1793, 
the republic being then established, he advised 
Washington : " I think it very material myself 
to keep alive the friendly sentiments of that 
country as far as can be done, without risking 
war or double payment. If the instalments 
falling due this year can be advanced, without 
incurring those dangers, I should be for doing 
it.". 

For a brief period now Jefferson felt san- 
guine. He declared cheerfully that his senti- 
ments were " really those of ninety-nine in a 
hundred of our citizens ; " that the prospects of 
the Anglican party '' have certainly not bright- 
ened ; " that, except for that " little party," 
which has sought a "stepping stone to mon- 
archy," " this country is entirely republican, 
friends to the Constitution," etc. Yet even 
amid these few weeks of triumph and hope the 
indomitable temper of the hard-fighting Secre- 



158 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tary of the Treasury harassed Jefferson with 
daily vexations. May 13, 1793, he complains 
bitterly that Hamilton is encroaching on his 
department, actually proposing to instruct the 
collectors of customs to watch for infractions of 
neutrality b}^ French vessels, and to report them 
secretly to him (Hamilton). To deliver the 
country from a "mere English neutrality," he is 
obliged to rely on the fact " that the penchant 
of the President is not that way, and, above 
all, the ardent spirit of our constituents." 

But the largest cloud which darkened the 
prospect was blown from a quarter to which 
Jefferson had been looking only for floods of 
glorious sunlight. From the hour when Genet 
first set foot in the country, that restless emis- 
sary of discord allowed scarcely a day to glide 
by without a fresh indiscretion or a new breach 
of law. The energetic friendliness of the Sec- 
retary of State rapidly changed to anxiety, and 
soon anxiety became anger. His letters to 
Genet, at first so significantly dispassionate, 
came soon to express genuine indignation and 
rebuke. For Jefferson could not quite bring his 
pacific nature to the point of wishing to find 
his country committed to actual war, and he 
appreciated with regret that Genet was aiming 
at that end. Further, with his unerring polit- 
ical sagacity, Jefferson saw plainly that Genet 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 159 

was SO recklessly contemning the laws and in- 
dependence of this country, that an Anglican 
reaction must inevitably soon set in. He wrote 
to Monroe that Genet's "conduct is indefen- 
sible by the most furious Jacobin." When at 
last the blind arrogance of the excited French- 
man led him to insult Washington with the 
threat that he himself, foreigner as he was, 
and bound b}^ diplomatic courtesies, would pub- 
licly appeal from the President to the people, 
actually saying that he would only respect 
the political opinions of the President till the 
representatives should have confirmed or re- 
jected them, Jefferson's wrath at this fatal 
blundering could no longer be restrained. He 
denounced with asperity the unfortunate fa- 
natic whose boundless folly was turning back 
the republican party in its rapid march towards 
triumph. He admitted that Genet's recall must 
be demanded, and indeed heartily longed to see 
him depart ; he only begged that the dis- 
missal might not be personally insulting in 
form. He wrote a letter to Morris, at Paris, 
reviewing Genet's behavior, from the landing 
at Charleston, in language that ought to have 
been gratifying even to the " Anglomen,*' " If 
our citizens," he ccmcluded, " have not already 
been shedding each other's blood, it is not owing 
to the moderation of Mr. Genet." On the other 



160 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

hand, it should be said that Genet afterward 
spoke very severely of Jefferson, as one who 
had privately incited and encouraged him, and 
afterward publicly abandoned him. Probably 
Jefferson's objections lay not so much to the 
political morality as to the ill-advised lack of 
tact which distinguished the envoy's doings. 
Certainly his indignation was strictly limited 
to the individual offender, and did not in the 
least affect his French sympathies. Writing to 
Madison, September 1, 1793, he spoke of '' the 
friendly nation " and " the hostile one," mean- 
ing respectively France and England. He was 
even less neutral than ever before. 

Throughout the harassing alternations of 
hope, irritation, and disappointment which 
filled up this period of Genet's mission, Jef- 
ferson's conduct as a statesman was upon the 
whole sound and praiseworthy. He was bent 
upon going as far in aid of France as was pos- 
sible without falling into war with England ; 
but that danger line he was honestly resolved 
not to cross. In the cabinet meetings, when 
Hamilton tossed arguments into the British 
scale, he tossed counter-balancing arguments 
into the French scale. The result was a set 
of neutrality rules which have served as prece- 
dents for the action of civilized nations ever 
since, and of which a large proportion were 



SECRETARY OF STATE. l61 

asserted and justified in his official letters. But 
liis consumiuate political tact is more interest- 
ing to the student of his character. This was 
shown most prominently by the way in which 
he first led the French movement, and then 
managed to stand aside for a brief period, when 
it was no longer possible to remain in front 
without losing his prestige, and compromising 
his right to resume his leading position at an 
appropriate moment. Excited as his frame of 
mind was at this time, still he was too shrewd 
to make a bkinder in the political game. Peo- 
ple may dispute whether he was on the right 
side or the wrong, but every one must concede 
his extraordinary^ personal astuteness. He saw 
a considerable section of his party, — the lead- 
ing and conspicuous section, — justifying nearly 
all Genet's lawless and foolish acts, running 
wild in democratic clubs and fraternizations, 
wearing liberty caps, and aping revolutionary 
slang. To eyes less sagacious than his, these 
extremists seemed to constitute the van of the 
part}'. But Jefferson knew more correctly the 
character of such a body and the destiny of its 
movement. He believed that they were not 
leaders who were going to be followed and in 
time overtaken by the nation ; and he surely 
knew that they were striking a pace with which 
the people could not keep up, and at which 
11 



162 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

they themselves would inevitably topple over. 
But while he recognized these facts, he did not 
proclaim them ; nor did he make a futile effort 
to check the headlong rush. He had no notion 
of being run over by his own troops, or of mak- 
ing himself unpopular by displaying an un- 
timely sagacity. Though he i-egretted to see 
a disaster precipitated, he well knew that its 
mischief would not exceed a temporary delay. 
When the disaster came, his precaution pre- 
vented it from involving him. As its effect 
passed over, the great mass of his party, remem- 
bering that he had not lost his head, trusted 
him more implicitly than ever ; while the reck- 
less members were obliged to respect his supe- 
rior shrewdness, and felt grateful to him for 
having spared them public rebukes. He had 
pursued his usual and moderate course ; he had 
shunned the easy mistake of cherishing dissen- 
sions or jealousies in his party ; he had made 
no enemies ; and especially he had shown that 
rare power of accurately appreciating the true, 
safe, and permanent volume of a popular move- 
ment which distinguishes him above all the 
statesmen of his generation. 

But in spite of the strength of the French 
party among the people at large, and in spite 
of his own prudence, Jefferson's official position 
in the cabinet remained very unpleasant. A 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 163 

man of his temper could find little comfort in 
unceasing antagonism with such a hard-hitting, 
untiring combatant as Hamilton. His occa- 
sional victories, far too few to satisfy him, were 
conquered by such incessant and desperate con- 
flict as was most wearing and odious to him. 
From such a hfe he longed to escape, and few 
men have sought so earnestly to get into office 
as he sought to get out of it. So early as 
March 18, 1792, he writes to Short of an in- 
tention, which he describes as having been al- 
ready expressed, to retire at the end of Wash- 
ington's first term. September 9, 1792, in the 
famous anti-Hamilton letter to Washington, he 
repeats the remark, saying, "I look to that pe- 
riod with the longing of a wave-w^orn mariner, 
who has at length the land in view, and shall 
count the days and hours which still lie be- 
tween me and it." He spoke more honestly 
than officials often do who hold such language, 
and it was with real reluctance that he con- 
sented to remain beyond this established bound. 
He was resolved, however, to make the delay 
as short as possible, and on July 31, 1793, he 
wrote to Washington that ^' the close of the 
present quarter seems to be a convenient pe- 
riod." But Washington's importunity almost 
took away his liberty of action, and absolutely 
compelled him to stay till the end of the year. 



164 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Then at last Lie escaped, and set out for Monti- 
cello with the joy of one freed from prison. 

Of course nothing which Jefferson could do 
at this juncture could escape censure. He was 
even blamed now for getting out of office as he 
had long been blamed for remaining in it. The 
same people who had been stigmatizing him as 
the chief of an opposition within the adminis- 
tration, obstinately retaining governmental of- 
fice for the express purpose of thwarting the 
administration policy, now said that he ought 
not to have resigned until Hamilton also should 
find it convenient to resign. They declared 
that Washington was embarrassed by tlie ne- 
cessity for rebuilding his cabinet piece-meal ; 
that Hamilton still had some matters in his de- 
partment to be completed, and Jefferson should 
have stayed till these were finished; that then 
the two rivals could properly go out together. 
Both charges were wholly unjust. Washing- 
ton, fully cognizant of the condition of affairs 
in his cabinet, had exerted all the pressure 
which he decently could to retain Jefferson in 
office, which, indeed, apart from this considera- 
tion, Jefferson was not required to abandon by 
any obligation not equally binding upon Ham- 
ilton ; for it was a fair struggle between the 
two. Nor was it better than ridiculous to ex- 
pect Jefferson to withhold his own resignation 



SECRETARY OF STATE. ] JO 

for an indefinite period out of complaisan. 'for 
the convenience of bis chief personal tmd poiii- 
ical enemy. How did he know that Hamilton 
would resign at all ? He was not in Hamilton's 
confidence, and did not trust him, nor did he 
deem it desirable that Hamilton should remain 
in office at all. It was absurd to expect him to 
promote such remaining. If his own resigna- 
tion put a pressuie on Hamilton also to resign, 
it seemed so much tlie better. In a word, Jef- 
ferson's behavior was thoroughly proper, and 
the two charges brought against him by his 
accusers were so inconsistent with each other 
as to be mutually destructive. 



CHAPTER XL 

IN EETREAT. 

At home on bis plantations Jefferson was 
supremely happy. " The principles," he said, 
"on which I calculated the value of life are 
entirely in favor of my present course. I re- 
turn to farming with an ardor which I scarcely 
knew in my youth, and which lias got the bet- 
ter entirely of my love of study." He puts off 
answering his letters, " farmer-like, till a rainy 
day." He does not " take a single newspaper, 
nor read one a month," and he finds himself 
" infinitely the happier for it." He indulges 
himself " on one political topic only, that is, in 
declaring to my countrymen tbe shameless cor- 
ruption of a portion of the representatives to 
tbe first and second Congresses, and their im- 
plicit devotion to the Treasur3\" 

But even without newspapers the farmer 
managed to keep bis knowledge and his inter- 
est fresh in all matters of foreign and domestic 
politics. He saw wi^i regret bis '' countrymen 
groaning under the insults of Great Britain." 
He hoped that the triumphs of the French 



IN RETREAT. 167 

armies would " kindle the wrath of the people 
of Europe against those who have dared to em- 
broil them in such wickedness, and would bring 
at length kings, nobles, and priests to the scaf- 
folds which they have been so long deluging 
with human blood. I am still warm whenever 
I think of these scoundrels, though I do it as 
seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to con- 
template the tranquil growth of my lucerne and 
potatoes." He hopes that "some means will 
turn up of reconciling our faith and honor with 
peace" with England; and he is "in love" with 
the " proposition of cutting off all communica- 
tion with the nation which has conducted itself 
so atrociously." When the Non-Importation 
Bill was lost in the Senate, he testily wrote that 
the senatorial "body was intended as a check on 
the will of the representatives when too hasty. 
They are not only that, but completely so on 
that of the people also ; and in my oj)inion are 
heaping coals of fire, not only on their persons, 
but on their body as a branch of the Legisla- 
ture." 

He had left behind him a famous report on 
commerce which was bitterly fought over in 
Congress, Madison and Giles backing it against 
the united force of the Federalists and the mer- 
cantile interest. It sought to encourage trade 
with France and to curtail the established busi- 



168 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ness relations with England. Jefferson's llipory 
was that business should not be controlled by 
sentiment ; but he firmly believed that the true 
commercial interests of the country could be bet- 
ter aided by a French than by an English com- 
merce. His arguments were very plausible, but 
did not suffice to induce our merchants to un- 
dergo the labor and risk of deserting familiar 
channels in search of new ones. The resolu- 
tions based on the report only served as the 
field for a long and obstinate battle between 
the Gallic and the Anglican factions. 

Jefferson was greatly vexed at the " denunci- 
ation " of those democratic societies which had 
been recently instituted here in imitation of the 
Jacobin Club, and declared this persecution to 
be " one of the extraordinary acts of boldness 
of which we have seen so many from the faction 
of monocrats." When Washington, reluctantly 
yielding to strong pressure, included in his mes- 
sage an unfavorable reference to these organiza- 
tions, Jefferson thought it " wonderful, indeed, 
that the President should have permitted him- 
self to be the organ of such an attack on the 
freedom of discussion, the freedom of writing, 
printing, and publishing." He was watching 
Washington's course with profound anxiety and 
some jealous distrust. For he thought that the 
President was losmg his judicial impartiality, 



m RETREAT. 169 

and changing from the head of the nation to 
the head of a party. He lamented this pros- 
pect, and seriously feared that the time might 
come when Washington's " honesty and his po- 
litical errors " might give the people a second 
occasion to exclaim " curse on his virtues ! they 
have undone his country." 

The " whiskey insurrection " in Western 
Pennsylvania very nearly commanded actual 
sympathy from Jefferson. He writes to Madi- 
son, December 28, 1794, that he is unable to 
Gee that the transactions " have been anything 
more than riotous. There was, indeed, a meet- 
ing to consult about a separation. But to con- 
sult on a question does not amount to a deter- 
mination of that question in the affirmative, 
fitill less to the acting on such a determination." 
" But," he continues, '' we shall see, I suppose, 
what the court lawyers, and courtly judges 
and would-be ambassadors will make of it. The 
excise law is an infernal one. The first error 
was to admit it by the Constitution ; the sec- 
ond, to act on that admission ; the third and 
last will be, to make it the instrument of dis- 
membering the Union, and setting us all afloat 
to determine what part of it we will adhere 
to." 

It was inevitable that Jay's treaty should 
seem to Jefferson absolutely odious i and in the 



170 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

storm which it launched across the country, and 
which threatened for a time to bring even Wash- 
ington's administration into grave jeopard}^ Jef- 
ferson was among the most irreconcihible of the 
malcontents. At first a "slight notice" of it 
was sufficient " to decide [his] mind against 
it." As the discussion grew heated, and the 
result seemed so important and so doubtful 
that Hamilton, thinly disguising himself as 
" Camillus," came down into the lists, Jefferson 
became greatly agitated. He beheld with dis- 
may the " only middling performances " of the 
writers on his side, and implored Madison to 
take part. " Hamilton," he said, " is really a 
Colossus to the anti-republican party ; without 
numbers he is an host within himself. They 
have got themselves into a defile, where they 
might be finished ; but too much security will 
give time to his talents and indefatigable- 
ness to extricate them. ... In truth, when he 
comes forward, there is nobody but yourself 
can meet him. . . . For God's sake take up 
your pen, and give a fundamental reply to 
Curtius and Camillus." True to his reluctance 
to become personally involved in such conflicts, 
he seems never to have contemplated the possi- 
bility of taking his own pen in hand. 

The " execrable thing," as he called the 
treaty, was at last ratified, under the influence 



IN RETREAT. 171 

of Washington's discovery of Randolph's per- 
fidy. But an equally fierce and much more 
dangerous crisis was created by the effort of 
its opponents iu the House of Representatives 
to obtain the diplomatic papers concerning it, 
and to obstruct its fulfilment by refusing the 
necessary legislation. Here again Jefferson 
went heartily to the extreme length upon 
which his party ventured. He was led into 
some inconsistencies ; but the excitement was 
so great and the political opportunity so prom- 
ising, that no party leader could have been 
expected to respect the trammels of dispas- 
sionate opinions on merely cognate questions 
of principle given by him at cabinet consulta- 
tions in quieter times. Yet the ultimate tri- 
umph of the Federalists in these treat}^ disputes 
left Jefferson cheerful under defeat. *' It has 
been to them," he said, " a dear-bought vic- 
tory ; it has given the most radical shock to 
their party which it has ever received." It 
leaves them so " that nothing can support them 
but the Colossus of the President's merits with 
the people ; and the moment he retires, his suc- 
cessor, if a monocrat, will be overborne by the 
republican sense of his constituents ; if a Re- 
publican, he will of course give fair play to 
that sense, and lead things into the channel of 
harmony between the governors and governed. 
In the mean time, natience," 



172 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

The prospect of Republicanism was brighten- 
ing when this shrewd judge could contemplate 
the possibility of Washington being succeeded 
by a professor of that faith. Such, indeed, was 
the state of feeling in the nation at large, and 
so much were the sympathy with France and 
the aversion toward England stimulated by 
hatred of the treaty, that a Republican victory 
would have been less wonderful than many 
things which happen in popular politics. The 
Federal party had been forcing many unpopular 
measures, and making many enemies. It was 
visibly losing ground; but it did not lose quite 
fast enough to give the Republicans control of 
the next election. Jefferson must have "pa= 
tience " yet a little longer. 



CHAPTER XII. 

VICE-PRESIDENT. 

It should be borne in mind tliat at the time 
of the third presidential election, 1, the electors 
were still permitted to exercise some individual 
discretion and independence ; 2, the votes for 
President and Vice-President were not sepa- 
rately cast, but the person receiving the highest 
number of votes was President, and the person 
receiving the next highest number was Vice- 
President. In spite of the hopes of Jefferson 
and the fears of Adams, the Federalists were 
abundantly able to control the choice of both 
officers. But the lack of harmony in their 
councils created a danger which they under- 
valued and failed properly to guard against. 
Upon the whole, Adams deserved to win in 
the competition which existed within his own 
party ; and after some discussion it became 
generally understood that . he should be re- 
garded as the Federalist candidate for the 
first place, and that Thomas Pinckney should 
have the second position. But the Federalist 
party was preeminently a party of leaders, and 



174 THOMAS JEFFLRSON. 

could easily have furnished at least a dozen 
men, each abundantly fit for the presidency. 
Among so many Adams was not so palpably 
and undeniably first that all had to admit his 
claim ; on the contrary, many questioned it and 
many were personally his enemies. In this con- 
dition of feeling, his followers became naturally 
but unfortunately suspicious that one or more 
of the Federalist votes might be diverted from 
him by machinations of Hamilton, or that some 
southern Republican, more attached to his sec- 
tion than to his party, might vote for Pinckney. 
In either contingency Adams might, of course, 
have been only Vice-President. The Republi- 
cans, on the other hand, had no such difficulties; 
Jefferson was their unquestioned leader ; Madi- 
son was greatly his inferior in the science of 
practical politics, and Clinton, Burr, Monroe, 
and Gallatin were all second-rate men. So the 
Republicans went into the colleges thoroughly 
united, while the Federalists, distrusting each 
other, sought not only a party but a partisan 
success. Some of the Adams men, to defend 
him against the suspected hostility and schemes 
of Pinckney's friends, threw away their second 
votes. The result was that Jefferson came in 
ahead of Pinckney, and was even within four 
votes of beating Adams himself.^ Thus by in- 

1 Adams received 71 votes, Jefferson 68, Pinckuey 59, Bun 
30 ; the rest were scattering. 



VrCE-PRESIDENT. 175 

excusable bad faith and bad management the 
Federalists lost the second place and gravely 
imperilled the first. Jefferson would have 
permitted no such bungling in a party led by 
him. 

December 17, 1796, Jefferson wrote to Madi- 
son : " The first wish of my heart was, that you 
should have been proposed for the administra- 
tion of the government. On your declining it, 
I wish anybody rather than myself ; and there 
is nothing I so anxiously hope, as that my name 
may come out either second or third." Ten 
days later he wrote to Rutledge : " My name, 
however, was again brought forward without 
concert or expectation on my part; (on my 
salvation I declare it.) ... I protest before 
my God that I shall from the bottom of my 
heart rejoice at escaping. ... I have no ambi- 
tion to govern men ; no passion which would 
lead me to delight to ride in a storm. . . . My 
attachment is to my home," etc., etc. January 
1, 1797, he told Madison : " No motive could 
have induced me to undertake the first [office.] 
. . . The second is the only office in the world 
about which I cannot decide in my own mind, 
whether I had rather have it or not have it." 
Undoubtedly in these passages the " lady doth 
protest too much ; " but Jefferson only behaved 
as nine men out of ten, in like situations, always 



176 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

have behaved and alwaj^s will behave. He dep 
recated the idea that he coveted anything so 
much as the lot of living quietly at home ; but 
he took all he could get once, twice, and thrice, 
and spent twelve years at the national capital 
without any determined efforts to escape. 

While he played the great game of the Re- 
publicans with consummate skill and in the best 
of spirits, Jefferson never neglected those little 
affectations which win the confidence of slial- 
low lookers-on. He now took pains to arrange 
that no special messenger should be sent to 
notify him of his election, but that the simple, 
inexpensive, eminently republican means of the 
post-office should be employed. Concerning 
the inauguration he said : " I hope I shall be 
made a part of no ceremony whatever. I sliall 
escape into the city as covertly as possible. If 
Governor Mifflin should show any symptoms of 
ceremony, pray contrive to parry them." He 
succeeded in carrying out this plan of slipping 
as it were unobserved into office ; and Adams, 
who had quite the contrary taste, absorbed the 
popular attention. 

Jefferson came to the vice-presidency in a 
cheerful and sanguine temper. He saw plainly 
that Hamilton was no longer to hold supreme 
control over a united party, and Hamilton was 
the only man among the Federalists whom h© 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 177 

really feared. Neither was he sorry to have 
Washington also out of the way, for he had 
long regarded Washington as a Federalist, mod- 
erate, patriotic, and honest indeed, but vastly 
more dangerous than better partisans, because 
of his overshadowing influence. June 17, 1797, 
he acknowledged in a letter to Burr that he 
had " always hoped that, the popularity of the 
late President being once withdrawn from act- 
ive effect, the natural feelings of the people 
towards liberty would restore the equilibrium 
between the executive and legislative depart- 
ments, which had been destroyed by the supe- 
rior weight and effect of that popularity." For 
a few weeks now he even ventured to contem- 
plate the possibility of harmonious relations 
between Mr. Adams and himself, which signi- 
fied, of course, that by his astuteness he would 
achieve an influence over the blunt, impetuous, 
and egotistical President. As the best intro- 
duction to this friendliness, he had quickly 
formed the clever design of making hatred of 
Hamilton a bond of union between Adams and 
himself, and he promptly set about strengthen- 
ing in Adams' jealous and suspicious nature a 
sentiment which would put the hot-headed 
New Englander quite within his control. On 
December 28, 1796, he wrote to Adams : " It is 
possible, indeed, that even you may be cheated 

12 



178 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of your succession by a trick worthy the sub- 
tlety of your arch friend of New York, who 
has been able to make of your real friends tools 
for defeating their and your just wishes." From 
this time until they met he studiously made the 
most cordial professions, and cast abroad suave 
and pleasant remarks like decoys to the very 
uncertain old bird whom he was hopeful to 
lure. For a day or two after his arrival at the 
seat of government his anticipations seemed 
correct. He came to Philadelphia on March 2, 
"and called instantly on Mr. Adams. . . . The 
next morning he returned my visit. . . . He 
found me alone in my rooms, and shutting the 
door himself, he said he was glad to find me 
alone, for that he wished a free conversation 
with me." The " free conversation " must 
have been most grateful ; for the President ex- 
pressed his wish to avoid the imminent rupture 
with France, and to send an " immediate mis- 
sion to the Directory." Nay, it was even " the 
first wish of his heart " to make Jefferson the 
envoy; but since both agreed that this was 
impossible, Adams suggested that Gerry and 
Madison, Republicans both, should be joined 
with Pinckney as commissioners. Such for- 
tune was too good to last. Three days later 
Jefferson walked home with Adams from a din- 
ner party at General Washington's house, and 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 179 

was obliged to say that Madison's refusal was 
positive. Thereupon Mr. Adams " immedi- 
ately said that, on consultation, some objec- 
tions to that nomination had been raised which 
he had not contemplated ; and was going on 
with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, 
when . . . our road separated, . . . and we 
took leave ; and he never after that said one 
word to me on the subject, or ever consulted 
me as to any measures of the government." 
Thus, after such fleeting courtesies, the Presi- 
dent and Vice-President fell permanently asun- 
der ; and somewhat later we find Jefferson 
wholly uninformed concerning most interesting 
items of foreign diplomatic proceedings. In 
fact, Adams came not bringing peace, but a 
sword ; and the animosities of parties and of 
individuals have never been fiercer in this 
country than they were during his administra- 
tion. 

Very soon it seemed as though a real sword 
would be drawn in what the Republicans 
deemed an unholy, if not quite a fratricidal, 
conflict with France. The Directory, crazed 
with Napoleon's victories, were finding causes 
of war against all mankind. A rumor had even 
gained currency that the failure to elect Jeffer- 
son President would be construed as the suffi- 
cient inducement for hostilities against the 



180 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

United States. The question no longer was 
whether this country should be driven into de- 
claring war, but whether France would begin it. 
She professed to consider the recent treaty with 
England as a breach of treaties previously made 
with herself. When Pinckney arrived to suc- 
ceed Monroe as minister, she insolently turned 
him away ; she issued most extraordinary de- 
crees against American commerce, and com- 
mitted intolerable depredations upon American 
shipping ; her Directory dismissed Monroe with 
compliments to hiuiself so framed as to be also 
insults to the government which had recalled 
him, and declared that no successor would be 
received until the United States should have 
made a satisfactory redress of grievances, 
though what grievances had occurred was un- 
known. Such exasperating items of news, 
coming in rapid succession, fired the hot tem- 
per of Mr. Adams, disgusted moderate citizens, 
and of course strengthened the party hostile to 
France. An extra session of Congress was con- 
vened in May, and was advised by the Presi- 
dent to create a navy, to fortify harbors, and 
generally to prepare for defensive war. The 
Vice-President's party, on the other hand, be- 
came anxious and despondent. Things seemed 
to be going against them. Jefferson noted that 
" the changes in the late election have been 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 181 

unfavorable to the Republican interest ; " and 
though " peace was the universal wish," yet he 
was fearful that Congress might '•'- now raise 
their tone to that of the Executive, and embark 
in all the measures indicative of war, and, by 
taking a threatening posture, provoke hostili- 
ties from the opposite party." " War, " he 
said, "is not the best engine for us to resort 
to. Nature has given us one in our commerce, 
which, if properly managed, will be a better in- 
strument for obliging the interested nations of 
Europe to treat us with justice." He was in 
favor of an embars^o. Further, he thouo^ht that 
the warlike cr}^ was " raised by a faction com- 
posed of English subjects residing among us, 
or such as are English in all their relations and 
sentiments." By June 17 he noted with pleas- 
ure that " Bonaparte's victories and those on 
the Rhine, the Austrian peace, British bank- 
ruptcy, mutiny of the seamen,^ and Mr. King's 
exhortations to pacific measures," had alarmed 
people into more submissive sentiments. 

Adams, though naturally combative, justly 
felt it his duty to keep the peace if possible. 
Accordingly, while France still lingered in the 
stage of threats and outrages, he appointed 
Gerry and Marshall to join Finckney in Paris 
as envoys extraordinary. Jefferson earnestly 
1 The famous mutiuv at the Nore. 



182 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

implored Gerry to go. He wrote : *' Peace is 
undoubtedly at present the first object of our 
nation. Interest and honor are also national 
considerations. But interest, duly weighed, is 
in favor of peace even at the expense of spolia- 
tions past and future ; and honor cannot now 
be an object. The insults and injuries commit- 
ted on us by both the belligerent parties, from 
the beginning of 1793 to this day, and still con- 
tinuing, cannot now be wiped off by engaging 
in war with one of them." Nor is his old fear 
of the monarchists banished ; " be assured," he 
says, '' that if we engage in a war during our 
present passions and oar present weakness in 
some quarters, our Union runs the greatest risk 
of not coming out of that war in the same 
shape in which it enters it. My reliance for 
our preservation is on your acceptance of this 
mission." Under such pressure Gerry accepted, 
but in an evil hour for himself. 

Jefferson has left a gloomy picture of the 
times. The " present passions," he says, were 
such that political opponents could no longer 
" separate the business of the state from that 
of society," and "speak to each other." "Men 
who have been intimate all their lives cross the 
street to avoid meeting, and turn their heads 
another way lest they should be obliged to 
touch their hats." All this, he says, is '' afflict- 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 183 

ing" to liiin, since " tranquillity is the old man's 
milk." Certainly ifc did not advance his tran- 
quillity that, in this summer of 1797, his famous 
letter to Mazzei found its way before the pub- 
lic. This had been written April 21, 1796, to 
his old fiiend and neighbor in Virginia, the 
Italian Mazzei, then in Europe ; had been 
translated '' from English into Italian, from 
Italian into French, and from French into Eng- 
lish." In its original form its important para- 
graph was as follows : — 

"The aspect of our poHtics has wonderfully changed 
since you left us. In place of that noble love of lib- 
erty and republican government which carried us tri- 
umphantly through the war, an Anglican monarchical 
aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed ob- 
ject is to draw over us the substance, as they have 
already done the forms, of the British government. 
The main body of our citizens, however, remain true 
to their republican principles; the whole landed inter- 
est is republican, and so is a great mass of talents. 
Against us are the Executive, the Judiciary, two out 
of three branches of the Legislature, all the officers 
of the government, all who want to be officers, all 
timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the 
boisterous sea of liberty, British merchants, and 
Americans trading on British capitals, speculators 
and holders in the banks and public funds, a con- 
trivance invented for the purpose of corruption, and 
for assimilating us in all things to the rotten as well 



184 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

as the sound parts of the British model. It would 
give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates 
who have gone over to these heresies, men who were 
Samsons in the field and Solomons in the council, but 
who have had their heads shorn by the harlot, Eng- 
land. In short, we are likely to preserve the liberty 
we have obtained, only by unremitting labors and 
perils. But we shall preserve it ; and our mass of 
weight and wealth on the good side is so great as to 
leave no danger that force will ever be attempted 
against us. We have only to awake and snap the 
Lilliputian cords with which they have been entan- 
gling us during the first sleep which succeeded our 
labors." 

In tlie shape in which this letter at last came 
into print in the United States, the " general 
substance," as Jefferson admitted, remained his, 
and only one mistake was worth correction. 
The Federalists at once raised a howl of indig- 
nation. Washington had been traduced, they 
said, falsely, basely, perfidiously, by an appar- 
ent friend. Unquestionably there was a dis- 
agreeable aspect about the matter, which it 
would have been pleasant to be able to remove, 
but presumably there were difficulties in the 
way of a thorough removal ; at least Jefferson 
wisely refrained from entangling explanations.^ 

1 See his letter to Madison of August 3, 1797; Works 
(Cong, ed.), iv. 193. 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 185 

Many years afterward he alleged ^ that his 
strictures were not ahned at Washington, but 
at the other members of the Ciucinnati; and 
that Washington himself could not have mis- 
construed the letter. But Federalist historians 
have taken these tardy glosses no more kindly 
than the party at the time took the letter. 
Afterward a story was circulated, that Wash- 
ington, with much severity, called Jefferson to 
account, that Jefferson humbly apologized or 
explained, but that the correspondence and a 
volume of Washington's " Diary " had disap- 
peared, presumably through the aid of the pri- 
vate secretary, Lear, with whom Jefferson was 
on a footing of friendship, which in this con- 
nection seemed suspicious. All this Jefferson 
vigorously denied, and even such a partisan as 
Mr. Hildieth admits that '^ the evidence of the 
story is wholly insufficient." Federalists then, 
however, and Federalist writers ever since, have 
strenuously asserted that Jefferson forfeited 
Washington's confidence, as if this fact, if true, 
would involve a like withdrawal of confidence 
by every one else. It has always seemed to 
the thorough Federalist that to question the 
perfect wisdom of Washington in matters po- 

1 See his letter to Van Bnren of June 29, 1824 ( Works 
(Cong', ed.), vii, 362), which contains Jefferson's side of this 
famous controversy, very carefully and fully stated. 



186 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

litical was a sort of secular profanity, and of 
this crime Jefferson was on some few occasions 
guilty. Yet in the main Jefferson undoubtedly 
had a sincere and honest reverence for Wash- 
ington's character, and was not hypocritical in 
treating him with respect and regard. Though 
at times he deplored to his friends the use and 
effect of the President's influence, and though, 
also, he probably underrated Washington's in- 
tellectual ability, yet in his strictly personal 
behavior and relations towards Washington he 
compares very favorably even with the Feder- 
alist John Adams ; neither did he leave behind 
him any opinions concerning Washington's men- 
tal powers nearly so derogatory as those which 
Timothy Pickering, most stalwart of Federal- 
ists, has bequeathed in his manuscripts. He 
was further very bitterly reproached for not 
controlling or ostracizing certain notorious Re- 
publican writers, who assailed Washington with 
such a coarse and brutal atrocity as recalls the 
worst days of Grub Street. It was unfortunate 
that he did not use his influence to restrain 
these men, or that he did not venture to visit 
them with his personal disfavor. It may be 
fairly questioned how far the head of a party 
can be held responsible for the tail ; but Amer- 
icans always have thought, and always will 
think, that the case of Washington was peculiar 



VICE-PRESIDENT, 187 

and deserved a rule for itself. It was unpar- 
donable to permit sucli gross libels as were ut- 
tered concerning him, if they could be stopped ; 
this has been the sober judgment of posterity 
no less than of all dispassionate contempora- 
1 ies ; and it has always been believed that 
Jefferson could have safely and efficiently ex- 
ercised such a restraining authority. In his ex- 
culpation it can only be said that he was never 
coercive in handling his followers, and that his 
policy w^as to allow the extreme of freedom in 
abuse as well as in more commendable matters. 
He himself often endured malignant and false 
assaults in silence. Nevertheless the American 
peojDle have never forgiven him for standing 
by with apparent unconcern while Washington 
was writhino; under the villainous calumnies of 
the Republican news-writers. At the time the 
opportunity to represent that Jefferson was ha- 
bitually backbiting Washington, that he was 
.it last detected flagrante delicto, and that there 
was consequent alienation between the two, was 
a useful w^eapon vigorously used by the Feder- 
alists with, perhaps, as much honesty as is con- 
sidered necessary in political controversy. 

Meantime the envoys, Pinckney, Marshall, 
and Gerry, w^ere ver}^ ill received in Paris, or 
rather were not diplomatically received at all. 
The Directory refused to treat until their mys= 



188 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

terious grievances should liave been redressed, 
and apologies made for offensive language in 
Mr. Adams' speech to Congress. Tlie unfortu- 
nate trio, indignant, liarassed, and despairing, 
were already contemplating an ignominious re- 
turn from a bootless errand, when they were 
surprised by a visit from certain private emis- 
saries of Talleyrand. In a series of interviews 
these go-betweens proposed that tlie United 
States should make a public loan to the Direc- 
tory, and pay a handsome bribe into the hands 
of Talleyrand, whereupon injuries and excuses 
might be praetermitted, and negotiations would 
advance prosperously. Much talk was wasted 
on this shameless proposition which, fortunately, 
came to nothing. Then at last Marshall and 
Pinckney withdrew in disgust. Gerry fool- 
ishly, though not altogether without some spe- 
cious excuse, suffered himself to be persuaded 
into i-emaining for a while alone ; an action 
upon his part, which was doubtless honestly in- . 
tended, but which was at best of questionable J 
propriet}^ and which subjected him to fierce de- 
nunciation from the Federalists, who declared 
that he was either the dupe or the willing tool i 
of the Directory. / 

In March, 1798, the Piesident^ in a state of r- 
great irritation, announced to Congress and to 11 
the country the failure of the mission. Theai 



VICE-PRESID ENT. 189 

excitement was intense. The Federalists hur- 
ried forward with motions for defensive prep- 
arations, and for strengthening and organizing 
the army and the navy ; they no longer admit- 
ted a possibility of avoiding war. The Repub- 
licans were greatly disturbed, but maintained 
a stout opposition, not absolutely devoid of ef- 
fect ; they resembled a brake grating upon 
wheels which may be impeded, but cannot be 
stayed. Very soon, however, the wheels seemed 
to free themselves from all check. For in re- 
sponse to a demand upon the President for the 
correspondence of the envoys, the whole dis- 
graceful story of the proceedings at Paris was 
made public. Only in place of the real names 
of the go-betweens there were substituted the 
letters X, Y, Z, which thereafterward gave a 
name to the whole affair. The country burst 
into furious indignation. Tlie President, losinaj 
his head as usual when the hot bloud surged to- 
waids his brain, made his famous and foolish 
assertion that no minister should again be sent 
to France without previous assurance that he 
should be received as the envoy of a "great, 
free, independent, and powerful people." The 
Federalists in Congress pushed through one 
vigorous war measure after another ; the mass 
of the people, who oscillate in the middle space 
between the decided partisans, now went over 



190 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

in full force to the Federal side ; the Republi- 
cans were discomfited and almost despairing ; 
some held their peace in temporary despair and 
confusion, while a few kept up the fight, in the 
desperate temper of the Spartans at Thermo- 
pylae. Scarcely any one of either party dared 
to doubt that war was close at hand. 

Amid all this turmoil, madness, and Repub- 
lican demoralization, Jefferson displayed a cool- 
ness and ability quite rare and admirable. 
Like others of his way of thinking, he received 
at first a painful shock from the X Y Z de- 
velopments, but rallied with superb courage 
and promptness. The occurrence proved to 
him that Talleyrand was a rascal, but not tliat 
alienation was either necessary or proper be- 
tween France and the United States. For Jef- 
ferson's political faith was a profound, immuta- 
ble conviction, not to be overthrown by isolated 
miscarriages however unfortunate. His eternal 
confidence in the cause of freedom and of the 
people w^as never shaken by the blunders of 
honest but wrong-headed colleagues, such as 
Genet had been, nor by the crimes or treachery 
of base individuals like Talleyrand and the Di- 
rectory. He did not lose belief in principles be- 
cause their prominent advocates now and again 
lacked wisdom or integrity. His abiding con- 
stancy proves that he was not a hypocrite, time- 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 191 

server, and demagogue, but a thorough and sin- 
cere believer in the political doctrines which he 
publicly professed. In matters of detail he was 
politic, not always ingenuous, not rigidly truth- 
ful, not altogether incapable of subterfuge and 
even of meanness. But he never in any stress 
deserted, or even temporarily disavowed, his 
main principles. He never lost faith or cour- 
age. Democrats might commit follies, errors, 
and crimes, but he stood steadfastly by democ- 
racy. He did not trim his sail to every flaw 
on the political ocean, but awaited through the 
longest unpromising days, with a noble patience, 
the powerful and steady gale which he was con- 
vinced would in time carry the nation upon the 
true course. For though a master of political 
craft he was not merely a politician ; he was a 
great statesman, with broad views and grand 
purposes, whether sound or not. Periods like 
that through which he was now passing proved 
these facts. While narrower intellectual visions 
were filled by the ugly panel of the panorama 
directly before them, Jefferson said: this will 
soon glide into the limbo of past scenes, and 
must not alone fasten a character upon the 
whole spectacle ; the ndiousness of this special 
dieiplay is no reason for condemning the entire 
show, which, as a whole, is noble and improv- 
ing. So all his efforts were aimed at gaining 



192 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

time, and he urged a relentless opposition to all 
measures in the way of warlike preparation. 

Events justified Jefferson's policy ; yet for the 
time there seemed so little likelihood of such 
a result tliat it is difficult to say that he was 
right in opposing all precautionary measures. 
The result did not come about in the way that 
he expected. Nor were his hopes of an agree- 
able kind ; for he anticipated that a series of 
French victories would soon so discourage the 
people that they would prefer to submit to un- 
just French demands rather than to encounter 
invincible French troops. In fact the escape 
came not in this humiliating shape, but through 
the different and surprising channel of concili- 
atory advances on the part of France and an 
extraordinary response from Mr. Adams. Tal- 
leyrand, confounded by the publication of his 
knavery, but too wise to fall into a rage, which 
would have been substantially a plea of guilty, 
declared that the whole X Y Z episode had 
been a huge mistake. Soon he further inti- 
mated to Vans Murray, the American minister 
at the Hague, that France desired to reopen 
negotiations on a friendly footing. The whole 
story is one of the most interesting in the his- 
tory of the United States, but as it is also one 
of the most familiar, there can be no excuse for 
appropriating any of our limited space to ita 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 193 

repetition. The result was, as every one knows, 
that Mr. Adams, of his own motion, dispatched 
a new embassy to France, succeeded in making 
a treaty and avoiding a war, and by his cour- 
age, independence, and obstinacy conferred upon 
the United States as great a good as the coun- 
try has ever received at the hands of a Presi- 
dent. At the same time he split the ah-eady 
inharmonious Federal party into two hostile di- 
visions, which for the future hated each other 
with that peculiar virulence which marks a fam- 
ily feud. 

During Mr. Adams' administration the Fed- 
eralists, besides falling into many foolish quar- 
rels and blunders, were guilty of one real polit- 
ical crime. This was the passage, amid the 
French excitement, of the Alien and Sedition 
acts, statutes probably contrary to the letter 
and certainly grossly discordant with the spirit 
of the Constitution. Under the extreme prov- 
ocation thus given, Jefferson's wonted coolness 
and sagacity deserted him, and he concocted a 
Republican antidote far woi'se than the Federal- 
ist poison. He drew the wicked " Kentucky res- 
olutions." Intending them as a protest against 
unconstitutional enactments, he far outran the 
constitutional limits of the most vigorous pro- 
test, ;ind wrote a document which was simpl}^ 
revolutionary. Even the reckless frontier Legis- 
13 



194 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

lature administered a severe blood-letting to it 
before they would pass it. Yet even in its 
modified form it remained a foundation and 
sufficient precedent and authority for all the 
subsequent secession doctrines of the Eastern 
States, for the nullification proceedings of South 
Carolina, almost, if not quite, for the rebellion 
of 1861. Reacting against extreme oppression, 
Jefferson fell into the abj^ss of what has since 
been regarded as treason. The misfortune is 
attributable to his theorizing argumentative 
habit of lajdng down abstract doctrines of 
right and wrong in matters of government. In 
his defence it can only be said that nullifica- 
tion and secession appeared less heinous in his 
day than in later times. Even Madison soon 
afterward drew the Virginia resolutions, only a 
little less objectionable than the work of Jeffer- 
son. It is indicative of the light in which such 
doctrines w^ere then regarded, that these pro- 
ceedings did not seriously injure either their 
authors or the party which adopted them. 

Yet when it was the other party that found 
threats of secession convenient, Jefferson was 
fully sensible of the folly of such schemes. In 
June, 1798, he wrote : — 

" If on a temporary superiority of one of the 
parties the other is to resort to a scission of the 
union, no federal government can ever exist. If t# 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 195 

rid ourselves of the present rule of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut, we break the Union, will the evil 
stop there ? Suppose the New England States alone 
cut off, will our nature be changed ? Are we not 
men still to the south of that, and with all the pas- 
sions of men ? Immediately we shall see a Penn- 
sylvania and a Virginia party arise in the residuary 
confederacy, and the public mind will be distracted 
with the same party spirit. What a game, too, will 
the one party have in their hands by eternally threat- 
ening the other that unless they do so and so they 
will immediately join their northern neighbors. If 
we reduce our Union to Virginia and North Carolina, 
immediately the conflict will be established between 
the representatives of these two States, and they will 
end by breaking into their simple units." 

In other words, secession was a medicine 
which only one physician could be allowed to 
prescribe. 

In March, 1800, both parties were already 
eagerly forecasting the chances of the autum- 
nal elections. Jefferson wrote : '' The Federal- 
ists begin to be very seriously alarmed about 
their election next fall. Their speeches in 
private, as well as their public and private 
demeanor to me, indicate it strongly." After 
a careful discussion of the chances in the doubt- 
ful States, he cautiously declared his own con- 
clusion : "Upon the whole I consider it as 
rather more doubtful than the last election, in 



196 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

which I was not deceived in more than a vote 
or two ; " but he allows it to be plainly read 
between the lines that, though stopping short 
of actually predicting a Republican success, he 
is really very sanguine of it. He had abundant 
ground for stronger hopes than he expressed. 

The Federalists threw aside all scruples in 
conducting their campaign. A sample of the 
abuse and falsehood in which they dealt may be 
seen in one of the stories which they circulated 
concerning Jefferson, charging that " he had ob- 
tained his property by fraud and robbery ; 
that in one instance he had defrauded and 
robbed a widow and fatherless children of an 
estate to which he was executor, of ten thou- 
sand pounds sterling, by keeping the property 
and paying them in money at the nominal rate, 
when it was worth no more than forty to one." 
The facts were stated by Jefferson to one of his 
friends as follows : — 

" I never was executor but in two instances, both 
of which having taken place about the beginning of 
the Revolution, which withdrew me immediately from 
all private pursuits, I never meddled in either exec- 
utorship. In one of the cases only were there a 
widow and children. She was my sister. She re- 
tained and managed the estate in her own hands, and 
no part of it was ever in mine. In the other I was a 
copartner and only received on a division the equal 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 197 

portion allotted me. . . . Again, my property is all 
patrimonial, except about seven or eight hundred 
pounds' worth of lands, purchased by myself and 
paid for, not to widows and orphans, but to the very 
gentleman from whom I purchased." 

These denials, he said, he would vouchsafe 
to his friend, but added, "I only pray that my 
letter may not go out of your hands, lest it 
should get into the newspapers, a bear-garden 
scene into which I have made it a point to enter 
on no provocation." He was probably the bet- 
ter able to keep this wise resolution, because he 
shrewdly appreciated that the rancor and per- 
sonal malignity of his opponents were a sure 
indication of their sense of weakness and of 
coming defeat. The party which indulges most 
freely in false personal vituperation almost in- 
variably finds itself beaten at the polls. 

This result grew steadily more certain as the 
election drew nearer. The Federalists were dis- 
heartened and fore-doomed by the internal dis- 
sensions which split their party into factions 
more hostile and jealous towards each other 
than towards the common foe. The schism 
which Adams had opened could not be closed, 
and inevitable destruction awaited a house so 
divided against itself. Defeat was further in- 
sured by the admirable condition of the Repub- 
'ican party. It seems probable that for some 



198 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

time before the autumn of 1800, a fair polling 
of the people would have shown nany more 
voters of Republican than of Federalist procliv- 
ities. It bad been the ability and individual 
force of the Federalist leaders which had enabled 
them to maintain the party supremacy so long. 
But at last the Republicans had become thor- 
oughly consolidated, and now, cheered by the 
spectacle presented by their discordant adver- 
saries, they were united, enthusiastic, and con- 
fident. It had taken time for discipline and 
organization to become perfectly established 
throughout their masses, more especially be- 
cause the labor had fallen almost exclusively 
upon one man. For Jefferson had been obliged 
to assume the task with very little assistance. 
Burr alone, in New York, had proved a really 
able political lieutenant. At last, however, by 
tactics and policy intangible and indescribable 
but wonderfully efficient, the immense multi- 
tudes which constituted the Republican raw 
material had been moulded into an irresistible 
array, and he who had done this feat still justly 
enjoys the reputation of being the ablest polit- 
ical leader who has ever lived in this country. 
The seciet of Jefferson's control of the igno- 
rant populace was undoubtedly his honest faith 
in them ; the}^ instinctively felt that his pro- 
fession of belief in the lower two thirds of the 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 

community was genuine ; in return they ^ 
gratitude and confidence, and for years patiently 
submitted to the drill, which he conducted with 
admirable temper and untiring perseverance. 
Thus he had now at length made them an in- 
vincible body, accomplishing in politics with 
the voters of the United States veiy much the 
same thing that Napoleon was doing in military 
matters with the untutored militia of France, 
inspiring them with the irresistible spirit of vic- 
tory. 

This comparative condition of the two par- 
ties was so well understood that no intelligent 
observer was surprised at the result of the elec- 
tions. There had been some talk of the old 
manoeuvre of withdrawing a few Federalist votes 
from Adams in order to bring in Charles C. 
Pinckney ahead of him ; but the leaders became 
aware of the peril of their situation in time to 
shun this folly. There had also been some 
danger that a few Republican votes might be 
thrown away, in order to prevent the occur- 
rence of a tie between the two Republican 
candidates. On December 15 Jefferson wrote : 
'' Decency required that I should be so entirely 
passive during the late contest, that I never 
once asked whether arrangements had been 
made to prevent so many from dropping votes 
intentionalh^ as might frustrate half the Re ' 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

publican wish ; nor did I doubt, till lately, that 
such had been made." In spite of this protes- 
tation, it is altogether incredible that a party 
led by Jefferson would ever have been permit- 
ted to lapse into so unpardonable a blunder as 
that which had made him Vice-President, es- 
pecially after the palpable warning of that oc- 
currence. In fact, when the time came neither 
party wasted any strength, and the votes of the 
electoral colleges showed for Jefferson 73 votes, 
for Burr 73, for Adams 65, for C. C. Pinckney 
64, for Jay 1. The equality between Jefferson 
and Burr of course cast the election into the 
House of Representatives. 

A period of extreme anxiety had now to be 
endured, scarcely more b}'' Jefferson than by the 
whole people of the United States. For the po- 
litical composition of the House was such that 
the Republicans could not control the choice, 
and the Federalists, though of course still more 
unable to do so, yet had the power by holding 
steadily together to prevent any election what- 
soever. Momentous as such a political crime 
would be, nevertheless many influential Fed- 
eralists soon showed themselves sufficiently 
embittered and vindictive to contemplate it. 
" Several of the high-flying Federalists," wrote 
Jefferson, December 15, 1800, " have expressed 
their determination . . . to prevent a choice by 



VlCEr-PRESlDENT. 201 

the House of Representatives . . . and let the 
government devolve on a President of the Sen- 
ate." This threat naturally produced " great 
dismay and gloom on the Republican gentlemen 
here, and exultation in the Federalists, who 
openly declare they . . . will name a President 
of the Senate i^ro tern, by what they sa}^ would 
only be a stretch of the Constitution." Some 
Federalists asserted that even anarchy was pref- 
erable to the success of Jefferson. December 
31, Jefferson wrote : " We do not see what is to 
be the end of the present difi&culty. The Fed- 
eralists . . . propose to prevent an election in 
Congress, and to transfer the government by 
an act to the Chief Justice [Jay] or Secretary 
of State [Marshall], or to let it devolve on the 
Secretary pro tern, of the Senate till next De- 
cember, which gives them another year's pre- 
dominance and the chances of future events. 
The Republicans propose to press forward to 
an election. If they fail in this, a concert be- 
tween the two higher candidates may prevent 
the dissolution of the government and danger 
of anarchy, by an operation bungling indeed 
and imperfect, but better than letting the Leg- 
islature take the nomination of the Executive 
entirely from the people." This " operation " 
was explained, after the crisis had passed, as 
follows : " I have been above all things sohiced 



202 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

by the prospect which opened on us in the event 
of a non-election of a President, in which case 
the federal government would have been in 
the situation of a clock or watch run down. 
There was no idea of force, nor of any occa- 
sion for it. A convention, invited by the Repub- 
lican members of Congress, with the virtual 
President and Vice-President, would have been 
on the ground in eight weeks, would have re- 
paired the Constitution where it was defective, 
and wound it up again." It was easy for Jef- 
ferson to write thus tranquilly and to settle a 
terrible jeopardy by an obvious simile, after the 
substantial peril had passed away and he had 
been occupying the presidential chair for up- 
wards of a fortnight. But it was most fortu- 
nate for the country that he and his friends 
were not driven to this " peaceable and legiti- 
mate resource ; " they would hardly have suc- 
ceeded in such an extra-constitutional process 
of national watch-winding in the teeth of the 
daring and vindictive men who led the power- 
ful Federal minority. Still worse would it have 
been for the existence of the infant nation if 
force had been resorted to, of which there was 
some threatening talk if the scheme of making 
Jay or Marshall President should be seriously 
undertaken. "If they could have been per- 
mitted," wrote Jefferson, " to pass a law for 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 203 

f ntting the government into the hands of an 
officer, they would certainly have prevented an 
election. But we thought it best to declare 
openly and firmly, once for all, that the day 
Buch an act passed, the Middle States would 
arm, and that no such usurpation, even tor a 
single day, should be submitted to. This first 
shook them ; and they were completely alarmed 
at the resource for which we declared, to wit, a 
convention to reorganize the government and to 
amend it. The very word ^convention' gives 
them the horrors." These letters present an 
example of the contradictions into which Jef- 
ferson was constantly led by his unconquerable 
passion for construing facts to suit his purpose 
or feelings of the moment. If it was so seri- 
ously threatened that "the Middle States would 
arm," that the Federalists were overawed b}^ 
the threat, he was not justified in complacently 
saying that there was " no idea of force nor of 
any occasion for it." It was his disingenuous 
way of making any allegation which would re- 
dound to the credit of his party and his polit- 
ical creed. 

Perhaps through a fear of some of the con- 
sequences above indicated, or perhaps by reason 
of a revival of good sense and patriotic feeling 
among the Federalist leaders, the more extrava- 
gant plans were gradually superseded by a proj- 



204 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ect marked by nothing worse than petty mal- 
ice. Before the voting in the House was begun, 
the Federalists had determined to rest content 
v/ith the personal defeat of JeiTerson. Though 
the electors could not designate which of the 
two persons for whom they voted they intended 
for President and which for Vice-President, 
yet it was perfectly well known that the whole 
Republican party had been of one mind in de- 
signing the first place for Jefferson. Indeed, 
for this position Burr would have been by no 
means even their second choice; it was not 
without reluctance and hesitation that they 
had brought themselves to give him the vice- 
presidency, as the price of his local influence. 
But the Federalists, of course, cared not at all 
for these facts ; they only cherislied a hatred 
-and fear of Jefferson proportioned to the love 
and trust felt towards him by the Republicans. 
To throw him out would seem half a victory ; 
and further, many Federalists would have been 
so much pleased to see Adams defeated, that 
they would have been almost reconciled to the 
success of a Republican candidate really unde- 
sired by his own party. A revenge, which hurt 
so many of those whom they disliked, seemed 
likely to tempt the anti-Adams Federalists be- 
yond their strength of resistance. Happily 
they were stayed from the immediate acoom- 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 205 

plisliraent of the plan by the impossibility of so 
dividing the Republican members as to effect 
the necessary combinations ; and during this 
fortunate delay strong influences were at work 
to save the party from the stigma of such dis- 
graceful conduct. Hamilton strenuously and 
nobly exerted the great authority which he still 
wielded, and though at first few would listen to 
him, yet in time his wonderful force triumphed 
again as it had so often done in years gone by. 
It is one of the strangest tales that history has 
to tell, that Alexander Hamilton was a chief in- 
fluence in making Thomas Jefferson President 
of the United States. In so doing, the great 
Federalist acted from a strict sense of duty, not 
from any good-will towards Jefferson person- 
ally, and perhaps this fact absolved Jefferson 
from any sense of gratitude, which certainly he 
never manifested in the faintest degree, even in 
a negative way. Upon the seventh day of the 
balloting, February 17, 1801, the long anxiety 
which had weighed terribly not more upon Jef- 
ferson individually than upon the people of the 
whole country, was brought to an end. The 
Federalist representative from Vermont absent- 
ed himself ; the two Federalists from Maryland 
put in blank ballots. So ten States, a sufficient 
number, voted for Jefferson for President. No 
one, as Jefferson declared with some pleasure, 



206 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

had changed sides ; the result had been achieved 
not by apostate votes but by the more agree- 
able process of abstention. The Constitution 
had passed through a strain of such severity as 
it has never but once since then encountered. 
The recurrence of the danger was soon averted 
by an amendment providing that henceforth the 
electors should designate in their ballots their 
choice for President and for Vice-President. 

Federalist writers have alleged tliat '-'- terms" 
were made with Jefferson before his election 
was permitted to take place. But this asser- 
tion, intended to cast a blot upon his behavior, 
has the most insignificant foundation, if, indeed, 
it has any at all. He himself said, February 
15, 1801, " I have declared to them unequivo- 
cally, that I would not receive the government 
on capitulation, that I would not go into it with 
my hands tied." He did not do so. He was 
not a man who could ever have been induced 
to such a transaction. The most that passed, 
if anything at all did really pass, was a state- 

V'^'^t made by one of his friends that, if elected, 
he clic . 

,, ,1 not intend to set himself to overthrow 

le important Federalist legislation of the 

V, T twelve years, or to make a clean sweep of 

TT^, '.ralist incumbents from government offices. 

. . this exposition or ms eminently proper 

itions could bring any reassurance to the 



VICE-PRESIDENT. 207 

Federalists only shows how absurdly thej^ were 
frightened. Jefferson had. been through a try- 
ing ordeal in a very honorable and clean-handed 
way ; and in obtaining the presidency he got 
no more than he was righteously entitled to. 

Burr came out as badly as Jefferson came 
well. He had been perfectly willing to acquire 
the presidency by the foul means of a Federal 
alliance, in direct contravention of the well- 
known wishes of his own party. A more gross 
betrayal of confidence could hardly be con- 
ceived, even in political life. He had made it 
clear that his heart was set upon personal ag- 
grandizement and not upon a Republican suc- 
cess. His untrustworthiness appeared the more 
despicable by comparison with the strictly hon- 
orable conduct of Jefferson, who might have 
excused endeavors on his own behalf upon the 
plausible ground that he was only forwarding 
the avowed will of the party. The antipathy 
with which many persons had long since learned 
to regard Burr now became the sentiment of 
all honest and intelligent men in the nation. 
The time was not far distant when he was 
sorely to need faithful friends ; but his conduct 
in these days of temptation had alienated all 
upright men. His behavior was the more base 
because Jefferson had behaved handsomely to- 
wards him throughout, and, while the question 



208 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

was still unsettled, wrote to him that " it was 
to be expected that the enemy would endeavor 
to sow tares between us, that they might divide 
us and ouu friends. Every consideration satis- 
fies me that you will be on your guard against 
this, as I assure you I am strongly." But how- 
ever Jefferson might deprecate quarrels in the 
party, both on political and personal considera- 
tions, it was not in human nature that his faith 
in Burr should not be gravely impaired, and 
his private good-will towards such an unscrupu- 
lous competitor completely undermined. 



CHAPTER XIIL 

PRESIDENT : FIRST TERM. — OFFICES. — CAI/ 
LENDER. 

On the evening of March 3, 1801, being the 
last day of Federalist domination in the United 
States, the functionaries of the moribund party- 
were busy in a not very reputable way. Presi- 
dent Adams was making Federalist nomina- 
tions to official positions, and sending them in 
to the Senate, which was rapidly confirming 
them, and John Marshall, Secretary of State, 
was signing commissions with zealous dispatch. 
The hour of midnight came upon him while 
thus employed, and a dramatic tale represents 
Levi Lincoln, who was to be Attorney-General 
under Jefferson, walking into Marshall's office, 
with Mr. Jefferson's watch in his hand, and 
staying this process of office-filling precisely at 
twelve o'clock, though many unsigned commis- 
sions still lay on the table. This behavior of 
the Federalists would have been unhandsome 
enough under any circumstances, but was ren- 
dered doubly so by the fact that they professed 
to regard Jefferson as pledged not to inte) fere 



210 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

with the persons Avhom he sliould find oc- 
cupying governmental posts at his accession. 
Adams added his own little personal insult by 
driving out of Washington during the night, in 
order to avoid the spectacle of the following 
day. In one sense of the word that spectacle 
was sufficiently extraordinary to be worth see- 
ing, for Jefferson had resolved that no pageant 
should give the lie to his democratic principles, 
and accordingly he rode on horseback, clad in 
studiously plain clothes, without attendants, to 
the capitol, dismounted, tied his horse to the 
fence, mid walked unceremoniously into the 
senate chamber. There he delivered his in- 
augural address, an effusion rhetorical to excess 
and breathing boundless philanthropy. One 
can read between the lines of his declamatory 
harangue the conviction of .the speaker that 
his accession to office mai-ked the upening of a 
glorious epoch in human progress. When he 
had concluded the delivery he was sworn into 
office by the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, and the simple business was over. 

This careful abstinence f-.om display marked 
the new President's whole official career, and 
at times was carried to an extreme which was. 
perhaps, even more pretentious and ill-judged 
than was the contrary fashion which he so 
pointedly endeavored to condemn. For in- 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 211 

stance, when Mr. Merry, the British minister, 
was to be presented, and went '' in full official 
costume " at the appointed day and hour, in 
company with Mr. Madison, the Secretary of 
State, to the presidential mansion, he was aston- 
ished by a scene which he described as fol- 
lows : — 

" On arriving at the hall of audience we found it 
empty, at which Mr. Madison seemed surprised, and 
proceeded to an entry leading to the President's 
study. I followed him, supposing the introduction 
was to take place in the adjoining room. At this 
moment Mr. Jefferson entered the entry at the other 
end, and all three of us were packed in this narrow 
space, from which, to make room, I was obliged to 
back out. In this awkward position my introduction 
to the President was made by Mr. Madison. Mr. 
Jefferson's appearance soon explained to me that the 
general circumstances of my reception had not been 
accidental, but studied. I, in my official costume, 
found myself, at the hour of reception he had him- 
self appointed, introduced to a man as the President 
of the United States, not merely in an undress, but 
actually standing in slippers down at the heels, and 
both pantaloons, coat, and underclothes indicative of 
utter slovenliness and indifference to appearances, 
and in a state of negligence actually studied." 

This was the ostentation of simplicity; and 
whether it shall be thought better than the os- 
tentation of ceremonial is a mere question of 



212 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

the form in which personal A^anity happens to 
be developed, though Jefferson preferred to ex- 
alt it into matter of principle. But beyond 
being an affectation, it had, in this instance at 
least, a serious effect ; for it incensed the min- 
ister, who " could not doubt that the whole 
scene was prepared and intended as an insult, 
not, perhaps, to himself personally, but to the 
sovereign whom he represented." Jefferson's 
object, however, was not to please either Mr. 
Merry or George III. ; he aimed his dress and 
deportment at that section of society in which 
his constituents were chiefly to be found, and 
with the skill of a good actor lie divined ac- 
curately the taste of his audience. 

When Jefferson was Vice-President he had 
said : " The second office of the government is 
honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid 
misery." From the foregoing anecdotes it may 
be conceived that he succeeded in escaping the 
splendor, and upon the misery he certainly en- 
tered in a remarkably cheerful frame of mind. 
He was justified in doing so, since, in respect 
alike of the foreign and domestic outlook, he 
had ever}^ reason to anticipate a tranquil and 
prosperous administration. Not only was his 
party dominant for the time, but he could dis- 
tinctly foresee that it was likely to retain and 
increase its power through many years to come. 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 213 

fn this ruling party he was supreme ; he in- 
tended that his sway sliould be gentle, reason- 
able, and beneficent, but he knew that it would 
be none the less absolute because his own mod- 
eration might hold it free from the traditional 
evil characteristics of a despotism. Beneath 
such genial influences his philanthropic good- 
will towards mankind expanded liberall3^ All 
his thoughts and words were of comprehensive 
love and. universal benevolence. He designed 
to be master of a political menagerie in which 
Federalist lions should lie down peacefully 
among his flocks of Republican lambs, and only 
a very few irredeemable " monarchist " snakes 
would have to be shut up in a secure cage by 
themselves. " My hope," he said, '' is that the 
distinction will be soon lost, or, at most, that it 
will be only of republican and monarchist ; that 
the body of the nation, even that part which 
French excesses forced over to the P^'ederal side, 
will rejoin the Republicans, leaving only those 
who were pure monarchists, and who will be 
too few to form a sect." Amid the exalted 
sentiments of his florid inaugural address he 
declared that " every difference of opinion is 
not a difference of principle. We have called 
by different names brethren of the same princi- 
ple. We are all republicans — we are all fed- 
eralists. . . . Let us, then, with courage and 



214 THOMAS JEFFERSON-. 

confidence, pursue our own federal and repub- 
lican principles, our attachment to our Union 
and representative government." 

In the like spirit he sought in his private ut= 
terances to erase all dividing lines, and to pro- 
duce an harmonious coalition of both parties. 
A fortnight before his inauguration, he ac- 
knowledged that the behavior of certain Fed- 
eralist representatives during the election must 
be construed as a "declaration of war." " But," 
he said, " their conduct appears to have brought 
over to us the whole body of Federalists, who. 
being alarmed with the danger of a dissolution 
of the government, had been made most anx- 
iously to wish the very administration they had 
opposed, and to view it, when obtained, as a 
child of their own." A few days later he said 
again of the Federalists : " These people (I al- 
ways exclude their leaders) are now aggregated 
with us ; they look with a certain degree of 
aft:ecti(m and confidence to the administration, 
read}^ to become attached to it, if it avoids in 
the outset acts which might revolt and throw 
tliem off. To give time for a perfect consolida- 
tion seems prudent." March 14 he says that 
the many citizens who had been thrown into a 
panic by the revolutionary movements in Eu- 
rope had " pretty thorouglily recovered," and 
" the recovery bids fair to be complete, and to 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 215 

obliterate entirely the line of party division 
whic^h bad been so strongly drawn. Not that 
their leaders have come over, or ever can come 
over. Bnt they stand at present almost with- 
out followers." 

Jefferson was notoriously a politic!al vision- 
ary, and this Utopia of harmony was only one 
among many day-dreams. Yet it was rather 
an exaggeration of the facts than an invention. 
For he was really a shrewd observer, though 
with a sanguine temperament ; and in the struc- 
tures which his imagination reared the blocks 
were all actualities. Thus, now, he wos per- 
fectly riglit in his prediction that his party v^as 
destined to absorb the great bulk of the nation, 
and to enjoy an ascendency so complete and so 
long as to produce nearly all the practical ef- 
fects of a universal fusion of opinions. If it 
was to the credit of his ability as a statesman 
that he so surely foresaw this future, it was no 
less to the credit of his heart that he antici- 
pated it in no spirit of ungenerous triumph. 
His gratification was honorable and patriotic, 
with little tinge of selfishness and none of ma- 
lignity. His joy was for the people rather than 
for himself, and was really based on the estab- 
lishment of sound principles more than on his 
own elevation. On August 26. 1801, he wrote, 
*' the moment which should convince me that a 



216 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

healing of the nation into one is impracticable 
would be the last moment of my wishing to 
remain where I am." To this noble end he 
bent all his thoughts and efforts. The mass of 
the Federalists, he said, ^' now find themselves 
separated from their quondam leaders. If we 
can but avoid shocking their feelings by unnec- 
essary acts of severity against their late friends, 
they will in a little time cement and form one 
mass with us, and by these means harmony and 
union be restored to our country, which would 
be the greatest good we could effect." 

The indications of success in this grand en- 
deavor were from time to time hailed by Jef- 
ferson in a gladsome spirit. New England had 
always been the stronghold of ultra Federal- 
ism, an Egyptian realm of political darkness, 
according to his notions. In his letter of June 
1, 1798, already quoted, concerning the folly 
of secession, 1 he had written : " Seeing that 
we must have somebody to quarrel with, I had 
rather keep our New England associates tor that 
purpose than to see our bickerings transferred 
to others. They are circumscribed within such 
narrow limits, and their population so full that 
their numbers will ever be the minority, and 
they are marked, like the Jews, with such a 
perversity of character as to constitute, from 

1 Ante, p. 194. 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 217 

that circumstance, the natural division of our 
parties." But by May 3, 1801, he was noting 
with delight symptoms of improving intelli- 
gence even in this obnoxious region. " A new 
subject of congratulation has arisen," he said, 
"' I mean the regeneration of Rhode Island. I 
hope it is the beginning of that resurrection of 
the genuine spirit of New England which rises 
for life eternal. According to natural order, 
Vermont will emerge next, because least, after 
Rhode Island, under the yoke of hierocracy." 
It was the preachers of New England, much ac- 
customed to meddle in matters political, whom 
Jefferson regarded as the most dangerous en- 
emies of sound doctrines. " From the clergy," 
he declared, " I expect no mercy. They cruci- 
fied their Saviour, who preached that their 
kingdom was not of this world ; and all who 
practice on that precept must expect the ex- 
ti'eme of their wrath. The laws of the present 
day withhold their hands from blood ; but lies 
and slander still remain to them." Yet, in spite 
of these misguiding obstructionists, the time was 
not far distant when Massachusetts herself was 
to become for a time a Republican State. After 
he had been President a single year Jefferson 
was able to say : "Our majority in the House 
of Representatives has been almost two to one ; 
in the Senate, eighteen to fifteen. After an- 



218 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

other election it will be of two to one in the 
Senate, and it would not be for the public good 
to have it greater. . . . The candid Federalists 
acknowledge that their party can never more 
raise its head." But he wisely added: "We 
shall now be so strong that we shall certainly 
split again ; . . . but it must be under another 
name ; that of Federalism is become so odious 
that no party can rise under it." 

This result had been greatly furtliered by 
Jefferson's wise moderation in the matter of 
removals from office. He has been accused of 
having planted the villainous seed which has 
since grown into the huge wickedness of the so- 
called '' spoils system," but the charge is un- 
justifiable. The conduct of the Federalists in 
the matter of filling offices prior to his inaug- 
uration gave him such provocation and excuse 
as would have induced many men to set about 
an extensive proscription. He did nothing of 
the kind, but on the contrary behaved with a 
liberality towards his opponents which has 
never been rivalled by any of his successors, 
save only John Quincy Adams, and which since 
the evil days of Andrew Jackson would be re- 
garded as nothing less than quixotic. On Feb- 
ruary 14, 1801, in reply to a letter concerning 
this interesting subject, he wrote : " No man 
who has conducted himself according to his 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 219 

duties would have anything to fear from me, 
as those who have done ill would have nothing 
to hope, be their political principles what they 
might. . . . The Republicans have been ex- 
cluded from all offices from the first origin of 
the division into Republican and Federalist. 
Tliey have a reasonable claim to vacancies till 
the}^ occupy their due share." The righteous- 
ness of this proposition could hardly be contro- 
verted, and Jefferson was justified in expecting 
the " justice and good sense of the Federal- 
ists " to induce them to " concur in the fairness 
of the position, that after they have been in 
the exclusive possession of all offices from the 
very first origin of party among us to the 3d 
of March at nine o'clock in the night, no Re- 
publican ever admitted, ... it is now perfectly 
just that the Republicans should come in for 
the vacancies which may fall in, until something 
like a-n equilibrium in office be restored." 

The serious question, however, was not how 
vacancies should be filled, but how they should 
be created ; whether the gradual operation of 
deaths, resignations, and expirations of terms 
of office should be awaited, or whether numer- 
ous removals should be made. Jefferson met 
this problem at once, boldly and frankly. Re- 
movals " must be as few as possible, done grad- 
ually, and bottomed on some malversation or 



220 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

inherent disqualification." One class only of 
Federalist incumbents and appointees were to 
be cleanly swept away, en 7nas8e, and with un- 
questionable propriety. These were "the new 
appointments which Mr. Adams crowded in 
with whip and spur from the 12th of Decem- 
ber, when the event of the election was known, 
and consequently that he was making appoint- 
ments not for himself but for his successor, 
until nine o'clock of the night at twelve o'clock 
of which he was to go out of office. This out- 
rage on decency should not have its effect, ex- 
cept in the life appointments; ... as to the 
others I consider the nominations as nullities." 
^^ Official mal-conduct " was of course added as 
an undeniably proper cause of removal. Other- 
wise " good men, to whom there is no objection 
but a difference of political principle, practised 
on only as far as the right of a private citizen 
will justify, are not proper subjects of re- 
moval." The only exception which Jefferson 
was inclined to make to this rule was " in the 
case of attorneys and marshals." Since the 
courts were " decidedly federal and irremov- 
able," he believed " that Republican attorneys 
and marshals, being the doors of entrance into 
the courts, are indispensably necessary as a 
shield to the Republican part of our fellow-citi- 
zens which, I believe, is the main body of the 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 221 

people." Though it is needless to say that the 
Judiciary department was both honest and able, 
yet there was fair ground for a Repubhcan to 
entertain this jealousy and distrust towards it. 
The Supreme Court, by virtue of its power to 
construe the new Constitution, was of scarcely 
less political importance than the Executive. 
Yet the judges of all the courts of the United 
States, the district attorneys and the marshals, 
almost to a man, were Federalists, and undeni- 
ably, also, most of them were partisans in their 
temper. Even a new and superfluous body of 
judges had been recently created by the Federal 
Congress, and all the seats had been filled by 
Mr. Adams with strong friends of his own, hold- 
ing of course by a life tenure. Very properly 
this extra bench was abolished by the Republi- 
can Congress shortly after Mr. Jefferson's acces- 
sion. But the other courts could not be abol- 
ished with equal propriety, and the attorney- 
ships and raarshalships could only be emptied 
by removals. There was abundant justification 
for Jefferson's assertion that the Republican 
party ought to have some foothold in the great 
and omnipresent department of justice. The 
desire to base removals upon official misconduct 
doubtless induced an extreme readiness to be- 
lieve vague and doubtful charges, such, for ex- 
a.mple, as the common one of '* packing ju- 



222 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ries ; " but this signified only a wish to threw 
a cloak of decency about a transaction not sub- 
stantially blame worth}^ 

Upon such principles concerning offices did 
Jefferson start, principles which he not only 
professed in words but carried out in practice. 
In time, as he came to feel a little more accus- 
tomed to exercise power, and perhaps a trifle 
weary of resisting importunities, he modified his 
views a little, bat only a little, for the worse. 
His real kindness of heart made it always dis- 
agreeable to him to turn any one out of office ; 
he spoke of it as "a dreadful operation to per 
form," a " painful operation." He suspected 
that " the heaping of abuse on me personally 
has been with the design and the hope of pro- 
voking me to make a general sweep of all Fed- 
eralists out of office," to the end that thus he 
might be rendered unpopular and the Federalist 
party regain through persecution the consolida- 
tion which it was so rapidly losing. " But," 
he said, ''as I have carried no passion into the 
execution of this disagreeable duty, I shall suf- 
fer none to be excited." After he had been 
somewhat more than two years in office, he 
wrote : " Some removals, to wit, sixteen, to the 
end of our first session of Congress, were made 
on political principles alone, in very urgent 
cases : and we determined to make no more 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 223 

but for delinquency or active and bitter oppo- 
sition to tlie order of things which the public 
will had established. On this last ground nine 
were removed from the end of the first to the 
end of the second session of Congress ; and one 
since that. So that sixteen [twenty-six?] only 
have been removed in the whole for political 
principles, that is to say, to make room for 
some participation for the Republicans." On 
May 30, 1804, he was willing to state as a 
cause for removal, " that the patronage of pub- 
lic offices should no longer be confided to one 
who uses it for active opposition to the national 
will," which, of course, was only a clever way 
of describing hostility to the dominant party. 
Yet it must be admitted that Jefferson never 
drifted far from the honorable doctrines which 
he first proclaimed, and that he showed great 
courage and honesty in permitting their offices 
to be retained by the mass of incumbents be 
longing to a party which had rigidly proscribed 
Republicans. Had positions been reversed, it 
is rather to be hoped than asserted that a Fed- 
eralist President would have emulated this con- 
duct of the Republican leader. Among the 
removals which Jefferson did make was that of 
John Quincy Adams from the place of commis- 
sioner of bankruptcy at Boston. The Federal- 
ists regarded this a^ a very petty manifestation 



224 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of personal malice ; but Jefferson afterward, in 
a letter to Mrs. John Adams, apparently in 
reply to her reproaches, declared that he was 
ignorant that Mr. Adams held the position 
when he caused the place to be vacated. 

In the important and very difficult matter of 
selecting appointees President Jefferson acted 
witli painstaking conscientiousness. " There is 
nothing," he said, " that I am so anxious about 
as good nominations." " No duty ... is more 
difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of characters 
possessed by a single individual is, of necessity, 
limited." Accordingly he begs friends in whom 
he can trust to aid liim with information. Some- 
times, though apparently very seldom, he made 
mistakes. He was severely attacked for giving 
the collectorship of New Haven to one Samuel 
Bishop, who was said to be grossly incapaci- 
tated by old age ; but he defended the appoint- 
ment with very plausible justifications. We 
never find him treating past political services 
as a recommendation to office, and he rigor- 
ously condemned any active interference in 
politics by the incumbents of federal offices. 
February 2, 1801, he wrote : " One thing I will 
say, that as to the future, interferences with 
elections, whether of the state or general gov- 
ernment, by officers of the latter, should bo 
deemed cause for removal ; because the consti* 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 225 

tutional remedy by the elective principle be- 
comes nothing, if it may be smothered by the 
enormous patronage of the federal government." 
He afterward treated " electioneering activity, 
and open and industrious opposition to the prin- 
ciples of the present government," as among 
the proper causes for removing Federalists from 
office. But the rules which he enforced against 
Federalist placemen he laid down equally 
against Republican incumbents, and carried 
into effect as far probably as could be fairly ex- 
pected. In September, 1804, he notified the 
Secretary of the Treasury that " the officers 
of the federal government are meddling too 
much with the public elections. Will it be 
best to admonish them privately or by procla- 
mation ? This for consideration till we meet." 

The Federalist newspapers were far from re- 
ciprocating the generosity displayed by Jeffer- 
son towards the office-holders of their party. 
It is to this period that the pitiful story of Cal- 
lender's malicious defamation belongs. This 
miserable fellow was a Scotchman by birth, but 
had been compelled to seek refuge in this coun- 
try in order to escape prosecution for the con- 
tents of a pamphlet which he had written 
concerning ^' The Political Progress of Great 
Britain." In the United States he brought his 
pen to the service of the Republican party. At 

15 



226 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

first Jefferson esteemed him an able and useful 
writer; for his assaults, though coarse, were 
forcible ; and he was willing to say vigorously 
things which persons of higher position were 
not unwilling to have said by others on their 
behalf. Morally he was a thoroughly low and 
contemptible creature, utterly devoid of any re- 
straints of honor or decency. It was he who 
first got upon the scent of Hamilton's amour 
with Mrs. Reynolds, and at once published the 
evidence which he had dishonorably secured ; 
and it was he who wrote the most infamous of 
those attacks upon Washington which were, in 
the opinion not only of contemporaries, but of 
posterity, the preeminently unjustifiable and 
unpardonable offence of the new })arty. As 
his scurrility increased, his ability diminished ; 
while of discretion he was utterly void. Soon 
his diatribes degenerated to the low level to be 
expected fi-om a political hack-writer who was 
also an habitual drunkard. Jefferson, according 
to his own account, became heartily disgusted 
with a protege who had become mischievous as 
well as repulsive, and w^ouid have given more to 
stop so impious a pen than to keep it moving. 
Yet, whether from softness of heart, as he pro- 
tested, or from a secret gratification at the work 
Callender was doing, as the Federalists charged, 
Jefferson continued from time to time to assist 
the wretch with small sums of money. 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 227 

Under Adams' administration Callender had 
the good fortune to become a martyr, being one 
of half a dozen defendants who were found 
guilty, imprisoned, and fined mider the Sedition 
law. Jefferson, as soon as he came into office, 
remitted the short remainder of the term of im- 
prisonment, and caused the fine to be repaid, 
'*by a somewhat doubtful exercise of power," as 
the Federalists very properly said. But Jeffer- 
son considered the Sedition law " to b'3 a nullity, 
as absolute and as palpable as if Congress had 
ordered us to fall down and worship a golden 
image ; and that it was as much [his] duty to 
arrest its execution in every stage as it would 
have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace 
those who should have been cast into it for re- 
fusing to worship the image." Despite his dread 
of embroilments, Jefferson never shirked the re- 
sponsibilities imposed upon him by such strong 
convictions ; and Callender now had the advan- 
tage of the President's courage, as before of his 
liberality. But a nature more greedy than 
grateful only hungered for additional favors. 
The liberated man hastened to urge the Presi- 
dent to remove the postmaster at Richmond 
and give him the office. The postmaster was 
a Federalist editor, but Jefferson very honor- 
ably refused to displace him. For this behav- 
ior he speedily suffered in a fashion which cer- 



228 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tainly hardly encourages men in public life >to 
be scrupulously upright. Callender immedi- 
ately allied himself with the editorial staff of 
the Richmond " Recorder," and filled that 
paper, day after day, with countless stories — 
partly his own, partly contributed by others 
— derogatory to Jefferson. The sheet, hitherto 
a petty local publication, quickly found its way 
to the remotest corners of the country ; for Cal- 
lender's characteristic onslaught was of the 
most ignoble, but certainly of the most effec- 
tive, kind. He charged Jefferson Avith having 
been his friend and financial assistant, and his 
confederate in the libels upon Washington ; but 
his chief topic was Jefferson's private life, and 
his many tales were scandalous and revolt- 
ing to the last degree. Naturally these slanders 
will not bear repetition here ; for they were 
worse than mere charges of simple amours. 
Apart from the fact that no decent man would 
have wished to dip his hands in such filth, one 
would think that the transaction which had in- 
stigated Callender to this conduct would have 
induced any Federalist editor of moderately 
good feeling to discountenance so base a re- 
venge. At least these gentlemen might have 
remembered that they had lately stigmatized 
Callender as a low and untrustworthy liar, when 
Hamilton and Washington had been his vie- 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 229 

tims. But, to the discredit of the journalists 
of that period, it must be confessed that their 
conduct was contrary both to gratitude and to 
decency. Every Federalist writer hastened to 
draw for his own use bucketful after bucketful 
from Callender's foul reservoir, and the gos- 
sip about Jefferson's graceless debaucheries was 
sent into every household in the United States. 
Jefferson never undertook to deny any of these 
narratives ; and P'ederalist historians, from 
whom a fairer judgment might have been ex- 
pected, have seen fit to treat this silence as evi- 
dence of guilt. Obviously it was not so. The 
President of the United States could hardly 
stoop to give the lie to a fellow like Callender, 
especially in such a department of calumny. It 
would be pleasanter for us also to have ignored 
the matter ; but this was scarcely possible, since 
the charges gravely affected Jefferson's happi- 
ness and reputation at the time, and have ever 
since been repeated to his discredit by writers 
upon that period. He will probably always be 
thought of as a man who carried licentiousness 
far beyond the limit which a grateful nation 
has tried hard to condone in the cases of Frank- 
lin, Hamilton, and many another among the 
sages and patriots even of those virtuous and 
simple days. Nevertheless there is no sufficient 
and unquestionable proof that Jefferson was one 



230 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

whit worse than the majority of his compeers. 
Nor is it probable that any one would ever have 
thought him so if he could have brought him- 
self to make a political removal and appoint- 
ment such as in these days would be regarded 
as matter of course. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PRESIDENT : FIRST TERM. — LOUISIANA. 

Jefferson had a fair measure of respect for 
the Constitution, — perhaps a little more than 
is ordinarily felt towards a common statute. 
He was far from regarding it with a blind 
homage, as if it were the sacred principle of the 
national life. This was not alone attributable 
to the facts that tradition had not yet lent to it 
a sort of consecration, and that prosperity be- 
neath it had not endured long enough to give 
it a reputation ; the feeling was more largely 
due to Jefferson's abstract views concerning 
government. A constitution might too often 
have the effect of fetters upon the nation. The 
will of the people, which had made the Consti- 
tution, might at any time modify or abrogate it. 
That will ought to be the ultimate rule of de- 
cision in any matter sufficiently momentous to 
justify an appeal to it. Therefore, if the will 
of the people was with him in an unconstitu- 
tional policy which he believed to be sound, 
Jefferson did not hesitate to speak respectfully 
of the Constitution, and to disregard it. Per* 



232 • THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

haps he is the only President of the United 
States who has ever avowedly and with pre- 
meditation carried through an important extra- 
constitutional measure, relying for justification 
simply upon the wisdom of the act and the 
wish of the nation. Such was the real charac- 
ter of his purchase of Louisiana. 

From the first moment, many years before 
the time with which we are now dealing, when 
his attention had been called to the rights of 
the United States concerning the Mississippi 
River, Jefferson had been fully alive to their 
vast importance. Indeed his estimate of the 
probable traffic upon that stream, and the con- 
sequent growth of New Orleans as a commer- 
cial metropolis, has since appeared exaggerated, 
at least in comparison with tlie proportionate 
growth of the rest of the country. In the sum- 
mer of 1790 a rupture between England and 
Spain seemed imminent, and Jefferson promptly 
made ready to seize the opportune moment for 
compelling a settlement of the open question 
of navigation. Spain owned both sides of the 
mouth of the river ; but the United States had 
always asserted that this ownership gave the 
Spaniards no right to close the stream to the 
free passage of American vessels. In August, 
1790, Jefferson, being then Secretary of State, 
wrote a vigorous letter to Carmichael, the rep* 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 233 

resentative of the United States at the Court 
of Madrid. He directed that gentleman to im- 
press the Spanish minister " thoroughly with 
the necessity of an early and even an immediate 
settlement of this matter ; " though " a resump- 
tion of the negotiation is not desired on our 
part, unless he can determine, in the opening 
of it, to yield the immediate and full enjoy- 
ment of that navigation." But if tliis point 
was to be yielded in the outset, what further 
subject for negotiation remained ? Jefferson 
boldl}^ said that it was "a port, where the sea 
and river vessels may meet and exchange loads, 
and where those employed about them may be 
safe and unmolested." There must be no dall}^- 
ing about this business, he added, since " it is 
impossible to answer for the forbearance of our 
Western citizens. We endeavor to quiet them 
with an expectation of an attainment of their 
ends by peaceable means. But should they, in 
a moment of impatience, hazard others, there is 
no saying how far we may be led ; for neither 
themselves nor their rights will ever be aban- 
doned by us." 

With an admirable zeal and persistence Jef- 
ferson pushed this demand for many months. 
He rapidly developed his notion concerning the 
port ; he declared the obvious necessity that it 
siiould " be so well separated from the terri' 



234 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

toi'ies of Spain and her jurisdiction as not to 
engender daily disputes and broils between us," 
such as must inevitably '' end in war." " Na- 
ture," he then cleverly added, " has decided 
what shall be the geography of that in the end, 
whatever it might be in the beginnhig, by cut- 
ting off from the adjacent countries of Florida 
and Louisiana, and inclosing between two of its 
channels, a long and narrow slip of land, called 
the Island of New Orleans." He admitted that 
this audacious proposition " could not be haz- 
arded to Spain in the first step ; it would be 
too disagreeable at first view ; because this isl- 
and, with its town, constitutes at present their 
principal settlement in that part of tlieir domin- 
ions." But he cheerfully reflected that " rea- 
son and events may by little and little familiar- 
ize them to it." He was right ; in due time 
'' reason and events," having had the way 
opened for them by the diplomatic skill and 
pertinacity of the Secretary of State, did famil- 
iarize the Spanish Court with this " idea." The 
right of navigation was conceded by the treaty 
of 1795, and with it a right to the free use of 
the port of New Orleans upon reasonably satis- 
factory terms for a period of three 3^ears, and 
thereafterward until some other equally con- 
venient harbor should be allotted. The credit 
of this ultimate achievement was Mr. Jeffer- 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 235 

son's, none the less because the treat}^ was not 
signed until he had retired from office. It was 
really his statesmanship which iiad secured it, 
not only in spite of the natural ; • "^ ice of 
Spain, but also in spite of the o\< ' -Hi- 

rectly thrown in his way in the earlier .La>^^o6 
by many persons in the United States, wii> i- 
vately gave the Spanish minister t) under." d 
that the country cared little about the ]\L: 3- 
sippi, and would not support the Secretary in 
his demands. 

It is curious to note that in the C' -x i ' is 

business there was already a faint ■ ;..- 

ine: of that principle, which man}^ ars aiter- 
Avards was christened with the name ' ^Monroe. 
For a brief time it was thought, ;■ >^: ^v'thou^; 
reason, that so soon as hostilities sh ■■ ui break 
out between England and Spain, : '.e formei 
power would seize upon the North Aiiiericai; 
possessions of the latter. Jeffersoi 
Gouverneur Morris : " We wish you, uu' 
to intimate to them [the British ministr; 
we cannot be indifferent to enterprises 
kind. That we should contemplate a 
of neiMibors with extreme uneasiness. 

o 

due balance on our borders is not 

to us than a balance of pc • .l..; 

always appeared to thr- :;i." 

The arraneff^ last consummated in 



236 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

1795 remained in force, working fairly well, for 
many years. But tlie wiser men in the United 
States were not so mucli satisfied as they were 
biding their time to get a more permanent foot- 
liold. In 1802-3 the opportunity came, cer- 
tainly by a very peculiar introduction. So 
early as 1790 there had been suspicions that 
France vrould like to regain her possessions on 
tlie Gulf of Mexico. Thus at that time Jeffer- 
son, though seeking French aid to assist him 
in enforcing the demands of the United States 
against Spain, had been afraid to expose the 
full extent of his designs ; for, he said, " it is 
believed here that the Count de Moustier, dur- 
ing his residence with us, conceived the project 
of again engaging France in a colony upon our 
continent, and that he directed his views to 
some of the country on the Mississippi, and ob- 
nd communicated a good deal of matter 
object to his court." For some years 
the project slept, but rumois of like 
tarted into fresh life early in 1800. 
;ly these gave at first little serious un- 
though later in the year instructions 
.t to the American ministers at Lou- 
is, and Madrid to do all in their power 

_ ^ lit any cession of territory by Spain to 

France. Interference, however, came too late. 
Before the instructions reached our ministers 



PRESIDENT: FIRST . 

the deed had been done. On October i, ^ 
Spain ceded all Louisiana to France. The 
treaty, however, was kept secret for a while, 
so that not nntil the spring of 1802 did it be- 
come really known in the United States as im 
assured fact. .Jefferson then was profoundly 
chagrined. He appreciated more fully than 
any other public man of the day the immeas- 
urable value of that region to the States ; and 
he was proportionately disturbed to see it pass 
from weak into strong hands. 

The vexation felt by Jefferson, in his public 
capacity, might have been partially allayed by 
a consolation afforded to him as an individual. 
For the situation at least gave him an oppor- 
tunity to clear his character from the aspersions 
of those Federalists who had so bitterly accused 
him of loving France better than his native 
land. No sooner did he conceive that the in- 
terests of the two peoples menaced even a 
future clashing, than he showed himself thor- 
oughly and zealously American. Instantly his 
French sympathy dwindled into a feeble ex- 
pression of regret that France should be trans- 
formed from a *' natural friend" into a "natural 
enemy;" for this, he said, was the inevitable 
consequence of what had occurred. April 18, 
1802, he wrote to Robert R. Livingston, minia- 
ter at Paris : — 



238 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

" The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by 
Spain to France works most sorely on the United 
States. On this subject the Secretary of State has 
written to you fully, yet I cannot forbear recurring 
to it personally, so deej) is the impression it makes 
on my mind. It completely reverses all the political 
relations of the United States. . . . There is on the 
globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our 
natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans. 
... It is impossible that France and the United 
States can continue long friends, when they meet in 
so irritable a position. . . . We must be very im- 
provident if we do not begin to make arrangements 
on that hypothesis. The day that France takes pos- 
session of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is 
to restrain her forever within her low water mark. 
It seals the Union of two nations, who, in conjunc- 
tion, can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. 
From that moment we must marry ourselves to the 
British fleet and nation." 

One almost discredits liis own senses as he 
beholds Jefferson voluntarily proclaiming the 
banns for these nuptials, which during so many 
years past would have seemed to him worse 
tlian illicit. Yet he w^as never more in earnest, 
and betrays a striking solemnity and depth of 
feeling throughout his letter, while obviously 
writing under the influence of an unusual ex- 
citement. Yet even beneath disappointment 
he was sanguine, and amid indignation he was 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 239 

diplomatic. " I should suppose," he says, " that 
all these considerations might, in some proper 
form, be brought into view of the government 
of France. Though stated by us it ought not 
to give offence, because we do not bring them 
forward as a menace, but as consequences not 
controllable by us, but inevitable from the 
course of things." As usual he tarns to time 
as his most efficient ally. The French troops, 
he says, are to subdue St. Domingo before they 
cross to receive delivery of Louisiana ; and he 
complacently adds, " the conquest of St. Do- 
mingo will not be a short work. It will take 
considerable time and wear down a great num- 
ber of soldiers." This interval he hopes to em- 
ploy well in working upon the French govern- 
ment. 

But an untoward event, occurring a few 
months after the receipt of news of the cession, 
was near robbing Mr. Jefferson even of such 
slight possibilities as might be contained in this 
interval. At this most inopportune moment, in 
October, 1802, the Spanish Intendant at New 
Orleans issued an edict, in direct contravention 
of treaty stipulations, cutting short the Ameri- 
can privilege of deposit at that port. At once 
the hot spirit of the Western country was in a 
wild blaze. Those pioneers who kept their 
rifles over their fire-places or behind their front 



240 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

doors, ready to shoot a catamount, an Indian, 
or each other, at a moment's notice, now talked 
fiercely of marching straight into New Orleans, 
and making a prompt setolement with powder 
and lead. Jefferson was much disturbed by 
demonstrations which threatened serious inter- 
ference with a plan which he had conceived. 
War he rightly deemed the last resource. A 
display of warlike spirit might be useful to em- 
phasize his diplomacy ; but he was alarmed at 
the prospect of this temper really bursting into 
action. Yet he sympathized with the Western 
men in their wrath, and bore them no grudge, 
though they seemed so likely to derange his 
schemes by their uncontrollable zeal. 

The persons with whom the President was 
really vexed, and fairly enough too, it must be 
confessed, were the Federalists. The remnant 
of this party now for an instant imagined that 
they saw a chance of being borne again into 
power by hostilities with France. Careless of 
the interests of the country as against the in- 
terests of party, they became clamorous for 
immediate war. Jefferson well described the 
situation, January 13, 1803 : — 

" The agitation of the public mind ... is extreme. 
In the Western country it is natural, and grounded 
on honest motives. In the seaports it proceeds fr(»m 
a desire for war, which increases the mercantile lot- 



PRESIDENT; FIRST TERM. 241 

tery ; in the Federalists generally, and especially 
those of Congress, the. object is to force us into war 
if possible, in order to derange our finances ; or, if 
this cannot be done, to attach the Western country to 
them, as their best friends, and thus get again into 
power. Remonstrances, memorials, etc., are now cir- 
culating through the whole of the Western country, 
and signed by the body of the people." 

But the small and embittered faction into 
which the Federalist party had rapidly degener- 
ated could not beat Jefferson, intrenched in the 
confidence of the nation, and backed by a hand- 
some majority in Congress. 

In the House of Representatives this ma- 
jority was imperiously led by John Randolph, 
whose faith in Jefferson was still blindly im- 
plicit. In the latter part of 1802 he carried 
the House into secret session, against vehement 
opposition from the Federalists, in order to 
give the President an opportunity for making 
certain private communicati<ms, and obtaining 
legislation thereon. Precisely Avhat took place 
behind the closed doors was never fully di- 
vulged ; but the substance of the whole work 
done publicly and privately during a few weeks 
of that winter was thoroughly satisfactory to 
the Executive. Many resolutions offered by the 
Federalists, designed at once to obstruct a 
peaceable settlement and to win the allegiance 

16 



242 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of the West by a show of angry zeal, were voted 
downi by loyal majorities. Finally, the manage- 
ment of the whole business was left to the Presi- 
dent, wlio was further provided with the sum of 
two million dollars, to be used as he should see 
fit. 

Jefferson's plans were by this time well un- 
derstood to be the purchase of New Orleans, 
and probably also something more on the east 
side of the river. He had early adopted this 
scheme, justly thinking that it would be cheaper, 
wiser, more humane, in every way more becom- 
ing a civilized and mercantile people, to buy the 
fee of such territory as tiiey needed, rather than 
to engage in a war simply for the purpose of 
establishing an easement in an island. The two 
million dollars Avere required to pave the way ; 
in other words, to bribe some of the more influ- 
ential among those virtuous legislators who had 
succeeded the wicked monarchs of France. Jef- 
ferson had already taken initial steps towards 
this bargain through Livingston at Paris. But 
that minister, before he had learned the execu- 
tive purpose, had unfortunately expressed very 
different views of his own. He had told the 
French government that the United States cared 
not at all whether their neighbor at the mouth 
of the Mississippi was to be France or Spain, 
provided the right of navigation aud privileges 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 243 

of deposit should not be interfered with. After 
correction, indeed, he began to discuss a pur- 
chase, and in time would probably have con- 
cluded it ; but Jefferson, for many reasons, 
chose to send a special emissary. Apart from 
tlie point of sympathetic conviction, it was 
desirable to make a show of energy before the 
West and the Federalists, who had little con- 
fidence in Livingston. Further, it was an un- 
comfortable task to put into the dangerous 
black and white of diplomatic instructions all 
which the President wished to say. He accord- 
ingly bethought him of Monroe, whose term as 
Governor of Virginia had just expired, and on 
February 11, 1803, nominated that gentleman 
envoy-extraordinary to France. The nomina- 
tion was promptly confirmed, in spite of the 
malicious suggestion of the Federalists, who 
averred that it was made only to provide a 
place for a personal and political friend, who 
was in financial difficulties. In sundry inter- 
views with Jefferson, Monroe became fully in- 
formed as to the President's projects, and de- 
parted on his delicate errand apparently without 
a word in writing upon which he could rely, 
should his principal choose later to disavow his 
doings. But Jefferson's friends always trusted 
him. 

At this same point in the business Jefferson 



244 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

manifested a mercantile cleverness of which 
any tradesman might have been proud. He 
wrote to Dupont de Nemours, urging him to 
smooth the way to\vards settlement, and throw- 
ing out divers shrewd suggestions : — 

" Our circumstances are so imperious as to admit 
of no delay as to our course ; and the use of the 
Mississippi is so indispensable that we cannot hesi- 
tate one moment to hazard our existence for its main- 
tenance." This for a timely hint of the " dernier 
ressorC Then he adds : " It may be said, if this 
object be so all-important to us, why do we not offer 
such a sum as to insure its purchase ? The answer 
is simple. We are an agricultural people, poor in 
money and owing great debts. These will be falling 
due by instalments for fifteen years to come, and 
require from us the practice of a rigorous economy 
to accomplish their payment; and it is our principle 
to pay to a moment whatever we have engaged, 
and never to engage what we cannot and mean not 
faithfully to pay. We have calculated our resources, 
and find the sum to be moderate which they would 
enable us to pay, and we know from late trials that 
little can be added to it by borrowing. The country, 
too, which we wish to purchase, ... is a barren 
sand. . . . AVe cannot, then, make anything by a 
sale of the land to individuals. So that it is peace 
alone which makes it an object with us, and which 
ought to make the cession of it desirable to France." 

Could a Jew or an attorney drive a baigain 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 245 

more skilfully ? A willing but very poor pur- 
chaser, absolutely sure to pay his notes at ma- 
turity, shunning discord rather than seeking 
profit; indirect but valuable advantages to ac- 
crue to the seller fiom tlie sale, in addition to 
the price ; an unmarketable piece of property ; 
a misty vision of war in the background ! Yet, 
in spite of such plausible persuasions, it is not 
probable that Monroe would have had much 
success in his negotiations, had not European 
politics come opportunely to his aid. Napoleon, 
who already exercised the powers of an em- 
peror under tlie title of First Consul, had set 
his heart upon establishing a great French col- 
ony on the North American continent. Under 
this impulse he had laughed to scorn the first 
proposals for a purchase of his territory. It 
would have been easier for Monroe to buy up 
his advisers than for those advisers to induce 
him to abandon a favorite whim. Neither was 
there much use in threatening the conqueror 
of Europe with the wrath of our trans-AUe- 
ghanian population. But as Jefferson's usual 
good fortune arranged it, by the time Monroe 
arrived the short-lived peace of Amiens was 
obviously about to be broken. On the verge of 
extensive military operations Napoleon forgot 
his colonial schemes. In the contemplation of 
a hungry treasury he became as eager to sell 



246 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

as tlie envoys were to buy. Monroe's instruc- 
tions had contemplated only a moderate pur- 
chase, of the island and some land upon the 
easterly side of the river, nothing more being 
thought possible. But Napoleon's notion now 
was to turn his most available assets into money 
with all speed. He intimated that he would 
sell all Louisiana. He asked, indeed, a great 
price ; but Avhere both parties are eager, trading 
is usually rapid. Monroe had gauged Jeffer- 
son's views with perfect accuracy, and felt no 
fear. In a few days he and Livingston closed 
the bargain, buying Louisiana outright for sixty 
million livres, with the stipulation that the 
United States should pay sundry claims of its 
merchants against France to the amount of 
twenty million livres more, and that certain 
privileges should be allowed to French and 
Spanish vessels in the port of New Orleans for 
twelve years to come. 

In their dispatches, communicating this 
treaty, the envoys acknowledged that they had 
exceeded their instructions, and humbly hoped 
that they had not erred. This was literally 
true, but it was only the letter not the spirit of 
their instructions which had been overstepped. 
Monroe well knew that he had onl}^ fulfilled 
Jefferson's real wishes. But since this was not 
apparent on the surface, the Federalists after- 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 247 

ward pretended to regard these professions of 
the negotiators as indicating that any credit 
there miglit be in the purchase was due to them 
rather than to the President. This, however, 
was an unfair artifice, which at best could 
amount to nothing more than saying that the 
presidential pohcy had succeeded even beyond 
the hopes of its projector. The entire credit 
— or discredit, if such there were — of the 
achievement belonged exclusively to Jefferson. 

Of course fault-finding began at once. No 
great ingenuity was needed on the part of the 
opposition to devise the gravest objections to 
the transaction both as a whole and in detail. 
The government was without constitutional au- 
thority to make the purchase upon terms which 
substantially involved the speedy aduiission of 
the purchased territor}^ in the shape of new 
States, to tb.e Union. It was directly contrary 
to the Constitution to grant peculiar privileges 
in the port of New Orleans to Spanish and 
French commerce. The boundaries of Louisi- 
ana, both upon the east and upon the west, 
were in dispute, and in time would probably 
have to be settled by a war. Spain had insisted 
as a condition of her own transfer that France 
should not sell ; Spain was still in possession 
and might now well be expected to decline to 
part with the property. These criticisms each 



248 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and all were perfectly true ; yet they were 
certainly each and all of very little conse- 
quence, when set against an acquisition so enor- 
mously valuable in so many different ways to 
the United States. The practical objections 
Jefferson met by practical suggestions. The 
boundaries were doubtful, but boundaries in 
wild lands constantly remain doubtful for many 
years without engendering serious hostilities. 
In this interval, the natural growth of the 
United States and the inevitable decadence of 
Spain upon this continent would ultimately in- 
sure a peaceful yielding to American demands. 
A little later he proposed, in pursuance of this 
view, that the government should offer bounties 
to attract a large body of vigorous and intelli- 
gent American colonists into Louisiana, to the 
end that a population of such numbers, char- 
acter, and national sympathies should be estab- 
lished in that quarter as would discourage 
contumacious neighbors. It would have been 
better, some said, to have bought the Floridas 
rather than Louisiana. But could not another 
purchase be made? The American claims of 
boundary 

' will be a subject of negotiation with Spain, and 
if, as soon as she is at war, we push them strongly 
with one hand, holding out a price in the other, we 
shall certainly obtain the Floridas, and all in good 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TER3f. 249 

time. . . . Propositions are made to exchanf]je Lou- 
isiana, or a part of it, for the Floridas. But, as I 
have said, we shall get the Floridas without ; and I 
would not give one inch of the waters of the Missis- 
sippi to any nation, because I see in a light very 
important to our peace the exclusive right to its 
navigation, and the admission of no nation into it 
but as into the Potomac or Delaware, with our con- 
sent and under our police." 

Time proved the perfect truth of all this. 

As for the chance of Spain refusing to de- 
liver possession to the United States, Jefferson 
intended to have no trifling in that matter. 
So soon as the treaty was ratified he 

" sent off orders to the Governor of the Mississippi 
territory and General Wilkinson to move down with 
the troops at hand to New Orleans, and receive pos- 
session from M. Laussat. If he is heartily disposed 
to carry the order of the Consul into execution, he 
can probably command a volunteer force at New 
Orleans, and will have the aid of ours also, if he 
desires it, to take the possession and deliver it to us. 
]f he is not so disposed, we shall take the possession, 
and it will rest with the government of France by 
adopting the act as their own and obtaining the con- 
firmation of Spain, to supply the non-execution of 
their asreement to deliver and to entitle themselves 
to the complete execution of our part of the agree- 
ments." 



250 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

For the other objections of L\w and theory, 
Jefferson was inclined to override them very 
cavalierly. In truth it was the only w^ay. It 
was not worth while to enter into a debate, pre- 
destined to obvious defeat, nor to engage in ar- 
gument when the Avhole weight of logic rested 
with the other side. The prompt vote of a 
silent majority was' the best policy. *' The 
less that is said about any constitutional diffi- 
culty, the better ; ... it will be desirable for 
Congress to do what is necessary in silence." 
" Whatever Congress shall think it necessary to 
do, should be done with as little debate as pos- 
sible, and particularly so far as respects the 
constitutional difficulty." Thus Jefferson wrote. 
The opposition, on the other hand, tried hard to 
force a prolonged discussion, but with slender 
effect. The outnumbering administrationists 
cared not to hear long lectures, designed to 
show only that a wise act, which they had al- 
ready determined to do, was against the law. 
So the Federalist speeches, though calling forth 
only a few replies and certainly no answers, 
went for nothing. In the Senate a pow^erful 
and delighted Republican majority hastened to 
ratify the treaty by a vote of twenty-four to 
seven, — ten votes more than were necessar}^ 
as Jefferson triumphantly noted. In the House 
of Representatives the overwhelming ranks of 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 251 

the same party, under the spirited leadership 
of Randolph, first made the necessary appro- 
priations, and then provided temporarily for the 
government of the territory by the President, 
even giving him for the time all the powers 
of the late Spanish monarchs, an odd position 
for Jefferson truly, but which he did not reject. 
Thus did Jefferson accomplish a most mo- 
mentous transaction in direct contravention of 
all those grand principles which for many years 
he had been eloquently preaching as the po- 
litical faith of the great party which he had 
formed and led. What henceforth could he 
and his followers say about Washington's aris- 
tocratic ceremonial at his levees ; what about 
Hamilton's establishment of a United States 
Bank ; what about all the alleged twistings 
and wrenchings of the Constitution by the free- 
constructionists and the "monarchists"? Here 
was an act, done by the great Republican doc- 
trinaire-president, utterly beyond the Constitu- 
tion in substance and contrary to it in detail; 
monarchical, beyond what any '' monocrat '* 
had ever dared to dream of. There was no 
denying these facts, at least without self-stulti- 
fication. John Randolph, dictating to his great 
majority in the House, became ridiculous when 
he endeavored to reconcile the treat}^ with the 
organic charter of the United States. The 



252 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

plain truth was that Jefferson had simply shat- 
tered into fragments his previous theories, and 
ever}^ one in the United States saw and kuew 
it. In August, 1800, he had declared that " the 
true theory of our Constitution is surely the 
wisest and best : that the States are independ- 
ent as to everything within themselves, and 
united as to everything respecting foreign na- 
tions." By this theory '' our general govern- 
ment may be reduced to a very simple organi- 
zatici and a very inexpensive one ; a few plain 
duties to be performed by a few servants." 
The doctrine of a simple league of independent 
powers, devised only for the specific purpose of 
foreign intercourse, could not have been better 
set forth. Yet it was hardly possible to imag- 
ine a transaction more at variance with the 
principle of such a league than was this pur- 
chase of an enormous property for the common 
tenancy and at the common charge of the po- 
litical partnership. It produced a welding and 
unifying of domestic interests to as great an 
extent as an isolated act could do. 

Still more surprising is it to remember that 
Jefferson was the chief expositor of states' 
rights. He declares them in the foregoing sen- 
tences ; he had declared them again and again, 
in public and private, directly and indirectly. 
He was the author of the Kentucky resolutions. 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 253 

But the justification upon which he had relied 
to sustain nullification and secession by Ken- 
tucky was as nothing compared to the justifica- 
tion which he himself, by this purchase, now 
created for nullification and secession on the 
part of the dissatisfied Eastern States. The 
Constitution, he had always insisted, was a con- 
tract between independent parties, not binding 
upon any one of them beyond its distinct stipu- 
lations. It was not among those stipulations 
that a majority might purchase new territory, 
and out of it create and admit new parties to 
the contract. It was the inevitable outcome of 
his own logic that any State might now law- 
fully withdraw from the league upon this op- 
portunity which he himself had furnished. 

Yet by a singular inconsistenc}^, which, per- 
haps, he did not appreciate, he managed to 
reiterate his old principles, even while he stood 
among the very ruins into which he had pros- 
trated them. He actually seized this extraor- 
dinary moment for an extreme assertion of the 
doctrine of states' rights, accompanied by some 
of that mawkish sentimentality and political 
rubbish which so constantly excite a revulsion 
of feeling when one most wishes to admire him. 
The Federalists, he says, " see in this acquisi- 
tion the formation of a new Confederacy, era- 
bracing all the waters of the Mississippi, on 



254 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

both sides of it, and a separation of its east 
ern waters from us." This result he thinks 
improbable. But the possibility of its happen- 
ing does not appear to him an argument against 
that purchase which may promote it. For 
" the future inhabitants of the Atlantic and 
Mississippi States will be our sons. We leave 
them in distinct but bordering establishments; 
we think we see their happiness in their union, 
and we wish it. Events may prove it other- 
wise; and if they see their interest in separa- 
tion, why should we take sides with our Atlan- 
tic rather than our Mississippi descendants ? 
It is the elder and the younger son differing. 
God bless them both, and keep them in union, 
if it be for their good, but separate them if it 
be better." This is the piety of states' rights 
and the statesmanship of secession, very plausi- 
bly put under the peculiar circumstances. He 
reiterated it again with something less of holi- 
ness in his language about six months later. 
" Whether we remain one confederacy, or form 
into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I 
believe not very important to the happiness of 
either part. Those of the western confederacy 
Avill be as much our children and descendants 
as those of the eastern," etc. It is inevitable 
that one pauses a moment to speculate upon 
the problem, what gospel Jefferson would have 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 255 

had to preach to the people in 1861. Would 
he have been among those whose text was '' Let 
them go in peace " ? Probably not, for he 
would have preferred inconsistency to unpopu- 
larity. 

Yet these matters of argument and logic, 
theory and consistency, may easily be dwelt 
upon unfairly. For every one must admit that 
the government ought to have bought Louis- 
iana, and must equally admit that the propriety 
of the purchase did not alone suffice to annihi- 
late all those broad political theories of the Re- 
publican party which would have forbidden it. 
It was simply a proper case for breaking, with- 
out discrediting, a rule, a case which will occur 
under any and all rules. So far as Jefferson 
personally was concerned, Destiny, that goddess 
who loves nothing so much as irony, had led 
him to the point to which she so often leads 
the profoundest statesmen and the wisest phi- 
losophers, the point where the choice must be 
made betwixt a sound abstract doctrine and 
a sensible act inconsistent therewith. Li the 
dilemma Jefferson did what all really great 
statesmen and philosophers always have done, 
and always will do in such an emergency ; he 
turt^d his back upon the doctrine and did the 
act. He preferred sound sense to sound logic, 
and set intelligent statesmanship above political 



256 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

consisteDC}^ Of course he laid himself open to 
reproach and ridicule. Throughout the coun- 
try eveiy Federalist throat sent forth a howl of 
abuse against the democrat who had turned au- 
tocrat ; every Federalist finger was pointed in 
scorn at the strict constructionist who, in an in- 
stant, had thrown overboard the whole Consti- 
tution. But Jefferson bore these taunts with 
much tranquillity. He could afford to do so. 
If his political philosophy had become some- 
what emaciated beneath the severe treatment 
to which he had subjected it, his popularity as 
a statesman had waxed hugely fat upon the 
same food. " The treaty," he said, " has ob- 
tained nearly general approbation. The Fed- 
eralists spoke and voted against it ; but they 
are now so reduced in their numbers as to be 
nothing." Yet he behaved really very well. 
He did not try to carry off his lawlessness with 
a high hand, as the applause of the people 
might have tempted and enabled him to do. 
He did not endeavor to put upon the transac- 
tion any sophistical gloss, which his dialectic 
cleverness would have made easy for him, espe- 
cially in the presence of a well-disposed audi- 
ence. But he frankly acknowledged that the 
necessities of the case had compelled him to do 
what was unlawful. Abjuring such sophistries 
as the ad minis trationists in Congress had put 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 257 

forth, he honestly said, even while the matter 
was still pending : — 

" The Constitution has made no provision for our 
holding foreign territory, still less for incorporating 
foreign nations into our Union. The Executive, in 
seizing the fugitive occurrence which so much ad- 
vances the good of their country, have done an act 
beyond the Constitution. The Legislature, in cast- 
ing behind them metaphysical subtleties, and risking 
themselves like faithful servants, must ratify and pay 
for it, and throw themselves on their country for do- 
ing for them unauthorized, what we know they would 
have done for themselves had they been in a situa- 
tion to do it." 

Loath to leave his justification solely to the 
wisdom of his act, he desired to be put, techni- 
cally, in as sound a position as possible. To 
this end he was very anxious that there should 
be a formal ratification by the people in the 
shape of a constitutional amendment. He even 
drew up one, and intimated to his friends in the 
cabinet and in Congress that he hoped to see it 
put upon its passage. They were less scrupu- 
lous than he, and would not concern themselves 
much about it, so that it was allowed to drop. 
Perhaps he was not so urgent in pushing the 
scheme as he might have been ; but at least he 
did not disguise his opinions and his wishes, 
which were undeniably correct and becoming. 
17 



258 THOMAS, JEFFERSON. 

Yet it may be said that in a certain way Jef- 
ferson bad been trne to his fundanii^ital and 
grandest principles, even in breaking those 
which were in a sense secondary. He believed 
primarily in the will of the people, and sought 
primarily the good of the people. The Consti- 
tution commanded his respect, because it for- 
mally expressed that will and substantially ad- 
vanced that good. In a peculiar crisis, where 
this written law seemed to lose these distinctive 
characteristics, it seemed also for the time to 
lose much of its title to obedience. It was true 
he had no technical or definite expression of 
the people's will, but it would have been absurd 
to pretend to doubt that he executed that will 
in acquiring Louisiana upon favorable terms, 
by, against, or outside of the Constitution. If 
the necessary constitutional amendment could 
have been made by an immediate popular vote, 
it would have been accomplished in a week. 
This is a hazardous doctrine, and so was Jef- 
ferson's action, though right, a dangerous 
precedent. But certainly the history of the 
transaction puts it beyond a question that the 
statesman predominated over the doctrinaire in 
his composition, though his enemies to this day 
assert the contrary. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. — IMPEACHMENTS. 
— REELECTION. 

Jefferson's personal animosities were few. 
They were limited to the small body of sup- 
posed " monocrats," the New England clergy, 
and the Federalist judges in the courts of the 
United States. In all his preachings of uni- 
versal benevolence and political brotherhood 
there must be understood a tacit reservation 
against these three classes of the community. 
Of these the judges presented the most definite 
mark. It has already been seen how he felt 
about the exclusive possession of the courts by 
the Federalists. There is no doubt that he 
wished, if he could not effect a radical change 
in the judicial personnel^ at least to give an 
impressive lesson to the life-tenants of the 
benches. His first expeiiment was certainly 
made in eorpore vili. He sent to the Represen- 
tatives a special message concerning the short- 
comings and vices of Pickering of New Hamp- 
shire, judge of the District Court, a worthless 
fellow morally and mentally.^ Pickering was 

1 For modification of the statement concerning Judge Pick- 
ering, see Appendix. 



260 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

at once impeached before the Senate by order 
of the House, was found guilty and removed, 
the Federalist senators doing themselves little 
credit by voting in favor of so wretched a crea- 
ture. 

But this was only light practising; much 
higher game was aimed at in the person of 
Judge Chase of Maryland, a justice of the Su- 
preme Court. He was of unquestioned integ- 
rity and ability ; but he was a P^ederalist of 
the extreme t^^pe, and found it as impossible to 
keep his Federalism out of his charges to juries 
as Copperfield says that Mr. Dick did to keep 
King Charles' head out of his memorials. There 
is no doubt that he erred gravely in this partic- 
ular, and used his judicial position in a manner 
improper even in those times, and which in our 
day would be deemed intolerable. That he 
was ever led to the commission of an actual in- 
justice does not appear; and whether his of- 
fences against official decorum, when they could 
not be proved ever to have resulted in practical 
wrong, ought to have been regarded as ground 
for impeachment was at best doubtful. Rut 
Jefferson and his friends resolved to make the 
trial ; in addition to the political advantage 
which success might bring them, they were in- 
censed against Chase personall}^ by reason of 
a speech which he had lately delivered to the 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 261 

grand jury, wherein he had very sonndly be- 
rated the Democratic party for having repealed 
the Judiciary Act. However unjustifiable this 
tirade was, yet it made a narrow foundation for 
an impeacliment. Other charges were there- 
fore souglit, and the Republican managers went 
back nearly five years to the trials of Fries 
and of Callender, at which Chase had certainly 
shown his political bias in a manner deserving 
of reprehension. But these were old stories, 
and if they were so heinous as was now alleged, 
at least it followed that the Republicans had 
been guilty of gross laches in not having long 
since made them the basis of proceedings for re- 
moval. Attaching them to the later causes of 
complaint constituted a virtual acknowledgment 
of the insufficiency of these Liter causes when 
taken by themselves. Nor was there any ob- 
ject in gathering together many improprieties, 
all which in conjunction might suffice to show, 
in a general way, that the judge was unfit for 
his office. For the question which the Senate 
must decide was not, whether upon the whole 
Chase was fit or unfit for his judicial posi- 
tion ; but whether upon any one of the spe- 
cific charges of the impeachment the evidence 
showed him to be a guilty man. 

Jefferson's behavior in this affair was shrewd 
and selfish. The end which he desired to at' 



'262 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tain was so desirable that even a small prospect 
of success justified the endeavor. But a de- 
feat would bring so much condemnation on the 
losers, and there was so much chance of defeat, 
that he had no notion of subjecting his own 
person and fortunes to the risk. Perhaps he 
felt about his prestige in politics as great gen- 
erals are entitled to feel about their own lives 
in battle, that it was too valuable to his party 
to be jeoparded. Certain it is that he played 
only the part of an instigator. He did not send 
in a message, as in the more clear and wliolly 
vmimportant case of Pickering. But his faith- 
ful henchman, the hot-headed Randolph, equally 
devoid of caution and of judgment, stood ready 
at a word from the chief to plunge into any 
dubious fray. The signal was given to him 
May 13, 1803, through Nicholas, who was Ran- 
dolph's personal friend, and acted as his chief 
of staff in the House of Representatives. To 
this gentleman Jefferson wrote : " You must 
have heard of the extraordinary charge of 
Chase to the grand jury at Baltimore. Ought 
this seditious and official attack on the princi- 
ples of our Constitution and on the proceed- 
ings of a State to go unpunished ? And to 
whom so pointedly as yourself will the public 
look for the necessary measures ? I ask these 
questions for your consideration ; for myself it 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 263 

is better that I should not interfere." Accord- 
ingly to the end he did not interfere ; he only 
watched with profound interest. But he had 
the disappointment to see the veteran judge, 
aided by the ablest counsel in the country, 
prove altogether too much for Randolph. As 
the cause proceeded, he was compelled to recog- 
nize that only the most merciless use of the 
party whip could dragoun the requisite two 
thirds of the senators into sustaining the im- 
peachment ; and he dared not exert his influ- 
ence in a cause which it would be so difficult to 
justify. In silent chagrin he averted his coun- 
tenance, w^hile Randolph met a severe defeat 
after a very bitter contest. The administra- 
tion party was worsted, but its astute leader 
had been externally so indifferent that he was 
not compromised in the popular opinion by the 
blander of his friends. But he had learned the 
lesson and made no further attempts to meddle 
with the bench. It remained to the end an 
immovable obstacle in the way of the complete 
triumph of his political theories. 

Jefferson's first term in the presidency was 
a great success. This was not so much due 
to what he had really done as to what he ap- 
peared to have done. For in fact no funda- 
niental changes had been made in the system 
of administering the national affairs, A differ 



264 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ent Htmospliere prevailed at the capital, but it 
had affected rather the external aspect than 
the inner constitution of the government. The 
work of the Federalist party had not been un- 
done in a single particular of any importancec 
A certain relaxation was discernible, a certain 
air of carelessness ; but except for the hostility 
to the army and navy little practical result was 
observable. All the great constructive meas- 
ures of that party remained unaltered ; the gov- 
ernmental machinery which it had devised was 
worked by the new hands much as it had been 
by the old ones. In any matters of substantial 
importance there was very little more real de- 
mocracy under the sway of the Democrats than 
there had been under that of the Federalists. 
The democrat Jefferson enjoyed and exercised 
a personal autliorlty infinitely greater than had 
been wielded by the " monocrat " Adams. In- 
deed, even to this day no President since Wash- 
ington has ever been able to dictate to Congress 
as Jefferson could do, and upon sufl&cient occa- 
sion actually did. No President since Wash- 
ington has ever led the people in such unqOes- 
tioning obedience. But these facts were not 
clearly recognized at the time. Congress did 
not appreciate that it was receiving orders ; the 
people had not the slightest notion that they 
were being guided. For Jefferson never used 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 265 

the accent of command or assiimed the bear- 
ing of a leader. His influence was singularly 
shadowy and mysterious. He simply commu- 
nicated suggestions and opinions to this or that ^ 
selected one among those who believed in him. 
The suggestions and opinions were followed not 
with any consciousness of discipline, but from 
a true feeling of admiration and confidence 
towards the great and good statesman who 
seemed always to speak wisely and to think 
virtuously ; who, at least, had many times been 
proved to plan with unrivalled astuteness for 
the good of his party. That party had already 
begun to abjure the name of Republicans in 
order to adopt exclusively that of Democrats : 
the title has ever since been kept, and the iden- 
tity of the party has been preserved, while its 
political opponents have had a variety of appel- 
lations and have undergone some breaks in con- 
tinuity, if not some mutations of principle. But 
it is a singular circumstance that the body which 
has chosen to declare itself the guardian of demo- 
cratic principles has alw^ays from the outset 
been peculiarly prone to fall beneath the dicta- 
tion of a single individual. No leader among 
the Federalists, the Whigs, or the Republicans 
(the present party of that name) has ever had 
a personal supremacy equal to that of Jeffer- 
son or that of Andrew Jackson. The Demo- 



266 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

crats have invariably been most powerful under 
the sway of a monocrat, and have always taken 
kindly to that sway.' 

Jefferson was able from time to time in his 
first four years to make a very good showing in 
tliose matters of detail which were much more 
definite and obvious than were the generalities 
of political theories. Thus every one could see 
that he dressed with ostentatious shabbiness on 
occasions when dress was likely to be noticed ; 
every one knew that the monarchical levees of 
Washington and Adams were discontinued. It 
was also well known that the army had been 
subjected to such a ." chaste reformation "' that 
the smallest remnant only remained. The Fed- 
eralists allowed no one to forget that the har- 
bors were not properly fortified, and that the 
navy was not kept up as it should be. Like 
economies were practised in all other depart- 
ments. When the odious internal taxes were 
done away with, and even without them the 
treasury prospered wonderfully and reduced 
the national debt with surprising rapidity, the 
credit for these achievements was given to the 
economy of the administration and to its able 
financial management. Really more efficient 
causes were the growth and prosperity of the 
country and the soundness of the financial pol- 
icy which Hamilton had inaugurated. But Jef- 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 267 

ferson would have been more than a Quixote 
iu politics had he frankly admitted that he was 
only reaping the fields which Hamilton had 
sowed. In like manner the freedom from anx- 
iety about European complications was alto- 
gether due to causes entirely beyond the reach 
of Jefferson's inflnence. But fortune had be- 
come his friend more than ever before, and 
everything redounded to his good fame and 
popularit}'.^ The nation did not concern itself 
too critically with the connections of cause and 
effect, but feeling very comfortable and good- 
natured amid the broad visible facts of the 
passing time, gave credit for the condition of 

1 Jefferson did not hesitate to claim credit for all that he 
plausibly could. Iu April, 1802, he wrote : " The session of 
the first Congress convened since Republicanism has recov- 
ered its ascendency is now drawing to a close. They will 
]jretty completely fulfil all the desires of the people. They 
have reduced the army and navy to what is barely necessary 
They are disarming executive patronage and preponderance 
by putting down one half the oflfices of the United States 
which are no longer necessary. These economies have en- 
abled tiiem to suppress all the internal taxes, and still to 
make such provision ^)r the payment of their public debt as 
to discharge that in eighteen years. They have lopped off a 
parasite limb, planted by their predecessors on their judici- 
ary body for party purposes ; they are opening the doors of 
hospitality to fugitives from the oppression of other countries ; 
and we have suppressed all those public forms and ceremonies 
which tended to familiarize the public eye to the harbingers 
of another form of government. The people are nearly all 
united." 



268 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

affairs to the rulers for the time being. Had 
not Jefferson always preached economy, and re- 
viled the financial management of the Federal- 
ists ; and now were not expenses curtailed, and 
taxes reduced, and debts being rapidly dimin- 
ished ? Had not Jefferson always desired peace- 
ful relations with foreign powers, and had the 
country been for many years past so free from 
irritation and anxiety growing out of foreign 
affairs ? Had not Jefferson always declared 
that he sought unity of feeling and the preva- 
lence of universal good-will among the people 
themselves, and had political kindliness ever 
before permeated the nation as it did to-day ? 
Four years of prosperity and tranquillity left 
little room for discontent with the government. 
Amid such influences political opposition pined 
and almost died. The Federalist party shrank 
to insignificant dimensions, indeed, since it 
flourished chiefly in a narrow locality, and was 
largely recruited fiom those peculiar spirits 
who seem to be by nature malcontents and 
grumblers, it seemed on the verge of becoming 
rather a faction than a party. 

Such was the condition of affairs when the 
fifth presidential election took place. At the 
close of February, 1804, the Republican mem- 
bers of Congress held a caucus and nominated 
Jefferson as the party candidate for the presi- 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 269 

ilency at the next election. They also very 
gladly felt that they could safely throw Burr 
overboard, and they accordingly named George 
Clinton for the second place. Jefferson could 
not bring himself to decline a second term. He 
can hardly be seriously blamed for this, though 
certainly he became guilty of still another in- 
consistency which he defended only by so-called 
reasons which deserved the less honorable name 
of excuses. His opinion " originally " had been, 
" that the President of the United States 
should have been elected for seven years, and 
be forever ineligible afterwards." But he had 
" since become sensible that seven years is too 
long to be irremovable. . . . The service for 
eight years, with a power to remove at the end 
of the first four, comes nearer to my principle 
as corrected by experience." Admirable hap- 
piness of expression, that might have planted 
envy in the breast of the most subtle Jesuit J 
In adherence to this principle, he adds : *' I de- 
termine to withdraw at the end of my second 
term. . . . General Washington set the exam- 
ple of retirement at the end of eight years. I 
shall follow it ; and a few more precedents will 
oppose the obstacle of habit to any one after a 
while who shall endeavor to extend his term." 
So much for his abstract principles. His more 
specific motives he stated as follows : — 



270 THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

" I sincerely regret that the unbounded calumnies 
of the Federal party have obliged nie to throw my- 
self on the verdict of my country for trial, my great 
desire having been to retire, at the end of the pres- 
ent term, to a life of tranquillity ; and it was my 
decided purpose when I entered into office. They 
force my continuance. If we can keep the vessel of 
state as steadily in her course for another four years, 
my earthly purposes will be accomplished, and I shall 
be free to enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my 
farm, and my books." 

So the Federalists had themselves to thank 
for the continuance of their mach hated oppo- 
nent in the presidency. They must seek such 
comfort as they could find in his asseveration 
that he was very unhappy about it. 

A party so large and so omnipotent as the 
Republicans, or Democrats, had now become, 
could not long remain wholly free from intes- 
tine feuds. Some rifts seemed already to be- 
come visible. The followers of Burr were 
angry at his. ignominious displacement ; there 
were dissensions in New York ; and symptoms 
which soon ripened into ill blood were discerni- 
ble in Pennsylvania. Even the Democrats in 
the Eastern States were getting much disgusted 
with the Virginian ascendency. In view of 
these hopeful facts the Federalists began to 
cherish schemes of detaching from the main 



PRESIDENT: FIRST TERM. 271 

body of Republicans a considerable number of 
malcontents ; then an alliance, in which they 
would be the more weighty partner, might re- 
store them to power. Jefferson was well aware 
of these intrigues, but watched them with just 
contempt. Nothing came of them. When the 
time arrived, the Republican party in all sec- 
tions of the country voted solidly and won an 
overwhelming victory. Even Massachusetts 
was for once carried by them, to the immense 
surprise and chagrin of the Federalists. In the 
electoral colleges one hundred and sixty-two 
votes were cast for Jefferson and Clinton ; four- 
teen faithful Federalists gave their ballots for 
C C. Pinckney and Rufus Kirjg. It was a 
glorious triumph. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PRESIDENT : SECOND TERM. — RANDOLPH'S 
DEFECTION. — BURR'S TREASON. 

A LONG life of singular good fortune, almost 
unprecedented in a land of popular government, 
checkered by few serious and no enduring dis- 
appointments, found its culmination in the bril- 
liant victory of the election of 1804. Had Jef- 
ferson been as wise as the prince in the fable 
he would have been alarmed at his own for- 
tune, and have felt rehictant further to test the 
constancy of his good Genius, knowing how diffi- 
cult it is to perch long upon the giddy pinnacle 
of supreme success. Apparently he felt no such 
boding instinct, but approached his second term 
with tranquil confidence. This temper was not 
properly attributable to personal vanity, nor to 
the overweening ambition which his detractors 
ascribed to him. Rather it was due to his firm 
belief that his theories of government were so 
founded in eternal truth that success and pop- 
ularity naturally attended upon him as their 
expositor. So far as he was egotistical and self- 
confident, he was so because he honestly con- 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 273 

peived himself to be a genuine and successful 
benefactor of mankind. Yet some misgivings 
and self-distrust would have been more timely, 
for whatever were his deserts he was about to 
meet such reverses as experience shows almost 
inevitably succeed to long continued prosperity. 
Not many days after Monroe and Living- 
ston had agreed to purchase Louisiana, war had 
again broken out in Europe. Nor did hostili- 
ties advance far before the ill effects attendant 
upon all those Napoleonic struggles began to 
be experienced by the United States, in the too 
familiar shape of naval outrages and lawless ag- 
gressions upon their neutral commerce. Seri- 
ous complaints were heard, and the outlook was 
far from cheerful during many months before 
«Tefferson's second inauguration. Yet he ob- 
stinately maintained a sanguine temper. Re- 
solved to preserve a fair neutrality, he would 
not doubt that his just dealing would be recip- 
rocated, and the neutral rights of the United 
States be respected with moderate honesty. 
The career in which the French people had 
sustained Napoleon for many years past had to 
a great extent cured Jefferson of those Galil- 
ean predilections which in Washington's day 
had given such an unneutral bias to his feel- 
ings. Now he had been for some time inclin- 
ing towards England, not so much with warmth 
IS 



274 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

of sentiment as from a respect for her position 
as the chief obstacle in the way of Bonaparte's 
military despotism. Even so far back as Octo- 
ber, 1802, he had written rather bitterly to 
Livingston : " It is well, however, to be able to 
inform you generally . . . that we stand com- 
pletely corrected of the error that either the 
government or the nation of France has any re- 
mains of friendship for us." In the summer of 
1803 he said : " We see . . . with great con» 
cern the position in which Great Britain is 
placed, and should be sincerely afflicted were 
any disaster to deprive mankind of the benefit 
of such a bulwark against the torrent which 
has for some time been bearing down all before 
it." Again : '-'- We are friendly, cordially and 
conscienti.ously friendly, to England. We are 
not hostile to France. We will be rigorously 
just and sincerely friendly to both. I do not 
believe we shall have as much to swallow from 
them as our predecessors had." In this spirit 
towards the warring powers, Jefferson felt ''a 
perfect horror at everything like connecting our- 
selves with the politics of Europe.*" His wish 
was that, while the nations of the old world 
were fighting, the United States should stand 
by indifferent, or at least impartial, but rapidly 
amassing riches through the abundant channel 
of a vast neutral commerce. It was a pleas- 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 275 

ing and sufficiently honorable project to gather 
wealth, increase, and power through peace. 
" The day," he wrote, in one of his happy 
dreamings, '^ is within my time as well as 
yours, when we may say by what laws other 
nations shall treat us on the sea. And we will 
say it. In the mean time we wish to let every 
treaty we have drop off without renewal." It 
was a civilized policy worthy of respect. More- 
over it was a sensible policy. Jefferson alone 
understood in that time the truth, which is 
now more generally appreciated, that by sheer 
growth in population, wealth, and industry a 
nation gains the highest degree of substantial 
power and authority. 

But Jefferson's attitude was that of a mer- 
cantile Quaker seeking an amicable trade with 
infuriated highwaymen, hardly a feasible atti- 
tude to be long maintained. Rage and imme- 
diate self-interest alone ruled the combatants, 
wdio were about as much influenced by Mr. 
Jefferson's reasonable and pacific protestations 
as they were by the Sermon on the Mount. 
Peace and neutrality were contemptible phrases 
in their ears. The British cabinet determined 
that the United States should either become an 
ally of England or be plundered by English 
cruisers. France pursued the same policy so 
far as she could. But Jefferson, resolutely bent 



276 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

upon tranquillity and prosperity, clung to his 
chosen course, and persisted in protest and ne- 
gotiation. His expressions of good-will towards 
England increased. " No two countries upon 
earth," he said, '' liave so many points of com- 
mon interest and friendship, and their rulers 
must be great bunglers indeed, if, with such 
dispositions, they break them asunder." It 
was cruel indeed to have only violence and 
robbery returned for such resolute amiability. 
But so it was; and the battle of Trafalgar 
occurring October 21, 1805, and leaving Eng- 
land supreme upon the ocean, proved a further 
serious misfortune for the United States, who 
soon began to suffer more intolerable injuries 
than any yet inflicted. 

Another incident in the first year of his sec- 
ond term gave the President grave though tem- 
porary annoyance. Spain, backed by France, 
threatened to make serious trouble concerning 
the eastern boundaries of Louisiana. Jeffer- 
son, though irritated and ready to fight if need 
be, was yet sufficiently true to his principles to 
prefer the peaceful remedy of a purchase. On 
December 6, 1805, he sent a private message 
to the House, with the design that it should 
lead up to such another appropriation as had 
been placed at his disposal in the case of Louis, 
iana. But to the surprise and discomfiture of 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 211 

the administrationists, a report of a veiy differ- 
ent tenor was made b}^ the committee to whom 
the message was referred ; and the chairman of 
that committee was John Randolph. Here was 
indeed an alarming defection ; for Randolph 
had long been accustomed to lead the House for 
the government. He was esteemed daring, 
able, and influential ; and those traits, which 
later gave him the character of a mere politi- 
cal free lance, had not yet been fully recog- 
nized. He had carried through the Louisiana 
measures with a contempt for logic and law 
which proved him the best of partisans ; he 
had endured castigation and defeat in the 
Chase impeachment with a gallantry that made 
him seem the most loyal of followers. Now 
suddenly he sprang up on the wrong side and 
poured forth the most vituperative harangues 
not only against the policy but even against the 
political integrity of the President. Jefferson 
might well be taken aback by this singular 
behavior, for he had a right to expect the same 
support in buying the Floridas which had been 
accorded in buying Louisiana. What then was 
to be the extent of this scission, this rebellion? 
For a short time he watched the debates in the 
House with anxiety. But ere long the votes 
reassured him ; only eleven of the party went 
off under Randolph's banner ; eighty-seven 



278 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

maintained their allegiance to the President. 
Evidently Randolph's personal influence had 
been overrated. Not all even of his eleven re- 
mained faithful to him, when it appeared that 
his purpose was not merely a difference upon 
this single occasion but extended to a perma- 
nent opposition. The President took courage, 
and declared the House to be 

" as well disposed as ever I saw one. The defection 
of so prominent a leader threw them into dismay and 
confusion for a moment ; but they soon rallied to 
their own principles and let him go off with five or 
six followers only. . . . The alarm . . . from this 
schism has produced a rallying together and a har- 
mony, which carelessness and security had begun to 
endanger. On the whole this little trial of the firm- 
ness of our representatives in their principles . . . 
has added much to my confidence in the stability of 
our government, and to my conviction that should 
things go wrong at any time, the people will set them 
to rights by the peaceable exercise of their elective 
rights." 

Characteristic sentences ! Jefferson presents 
the unusual spectacle of one who grew more 
optimistic with increasing years. 

Yet Randolph's conduct, though of slight po- 
litical consequence, ought to have given food 
for reflection to the people. It was not the 
outgrowth of selfish disappointment, but of a 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TEEM. 279 

genuine and honest dissatisfaction with the 
career of the administration. Randolph was 
really a purist in politics, as Jefferson had pro- 
fessed to be. He had espoused Republicanism 
and had become the devout disciple of Jefferson 
because he had believed that absolute purity 
would prevail beneath the sway of that party 
and its admirable leader. A Republican tri- 
umph was to inaugurate a golden age of virtue. 
He had been slow to awake from this delu- 
sion and to acknowledge that his idol was 
adopting the ways of all politicians and that 
the business of government was conducted now 
much as it had been in the bad days of Feder- 
alism. In the pain and anger of disillusion- 
ment, the impetuous reformer saw no better 
course than to abandon a chief whom he chose 
to reo^ard as forsworn. His criticism was not 
just, because the critic had set up an ideal stand- 
ard, and had expected more than could be 
done. Yet there was a lesson to be learned from 
his strictures ; it was apparent that Jefferson 
in earlier times had found fault which he had 
no right to find and raised hopes which he 
could not fulfil. He had dreamed and prom- 
ised probably with honesty, but he was not 
transmuting his dreams into realities nor mak- 
ing his promises good. In truth he could not 
do so ; he had tried, but he had unfortunately 



280 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

» 

talked about impossibilities in government so 
far as that science had yet been developed. 

In 1805-6 another disturbance arose. Aaron 
Burr had made up his mind that treason was 
preferable to a condition of political failure. 
For advancing the purposes of his boundless 
ambition Burr possessed infinite audacity, a 
singular capacity for personal fascination, and 
great aptitude for the machinery of politics. 
But he needed much weightier qualities to en- 
able him to cope with such powerful leaders as 
Hamilton and Jefferson, who both, hostile in 
everything else, were of one mind concerning 
the necessity of crushing him. Nor did Burr 
improve matters, but, to his infinite surprise 
and chagrin, made them vastly worse by the 
method which he took to rid himself of Ham- 
ilton. He only added universal odium to polit- 
ical disaster and financial ruin. In this state of 
his affairs he concocted his famous scheme for 
seating himself upon the " throne of the Mon- 
tezumas," and annexing to it all the territory 
west of the Alleghanies. While the enterprise 
was still unchecked and the wildest rumors of 
its extent and progress were prevalent, Jeffer- 
son maintained a tranquil confidence highly 
creditable to his good sense. He omitted no 
precaution, but he felt no doubt as to the re- 
sult. Substantially his anticipations were jus- 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 281 

tified by the prompt and easy shattering of the 
meagre forces and the arrest of the principal 
traitor. 

When Burr was brought to Richmond for 
trial, the President took the liveliest interest in 
the legal proceedings. Then indeed was wit- 
nessed a singular spectacle. The Federalists, 
forgetting that the hands of the criminal were 
red with the life-blood of that distinguished 
man to whom their party owed at once its exist- 
ence and nearly all the measures upon which 
it could base its good reputation, and seeing 
in tlie alleged project of Buit only a scheme 
which, if successful, would have overwhelmed 
in disgrace the administration of Jefferson, now 
received the wretch with every demonstration 
of friendship and admiration. They pretended 
to regard him as an innocent man persecuted 
by the President from motives of personal spite. 
It is highly improbable that they believed what 
they said ; but even if they did, it ill became 
them to be upholders of Burr. Accident made 
it likely that the punishment of a traitor would 
gratify a private animosity which it may be ad- 
mitted that the President must have felt, since 
he was human. But Burr was so unquestion- 
ably guilty that Jefferson, as President, was in 
duty bound to desire his conviction, and it was 
impossible to say how far personal feeling min-= 



282 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

gled with public motives. By established rules 
the President was entitled to the benefit of the 
doubt. But the Federalists, themselves most 
shamefully condoning Hamilton's murder, gave 
their enemy no benefit of any doubt, preferring 
to pursue him with unbounded abuse. 

Jefferson certainly made no secret of his 
opinion ; but there was no reason why he should 
do so ; there was no danger that the naked fact 
that he thought Burr guilty would have any 
undue weight in a court over which Marshall 
was presiding. Indeed, if any influence at all 
was perceptible in that tribunal, it was the in- 
fluence of the Federalist friends of the accused. 
Jefferson, of course, made no effort, as he had 
no power, to affect the conduct of the trial di- 
rectly or indirectly, save so far as that he com- 
municated to the government counsel any facts 
or suggestions which occurred to him. But he 
watched the proceedings closely, and certainly 
he had a right to be indignant at some inci- 
dents in them. For instance, Luther Martin, 
himself not untainted by suspicion of collusion 
with his " highljwespected friend," as he took 
pains to call Burr in open court, did not hesitate 
to charge that the President, by " tyrannical or- 
ders " " contrary to the Constitution and the 
laws," had endeavored to consign '' to destruc- 
tion " " the life and property of an innocent 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 283 

man." The judges sat silent while the counsel 
uttered this and more of the same sort. Then 
application was made b}^ the defendant's law- 
yers for a suhpoeym duces tecum to compel the 
President personally to attend as a witness, 
bringing the letters and records of the War 
Department. The court granted the request, 
but admitted that it had no authority to enforce 
such a summons. This singular assertion of a 
right to command not backed by a power to en- 
force made the President angry. He was ready 
to send any papers which might be pertinent, 
but he repudiated the notion that the court 
could properly order him to take the stand as a 
witness. There is hardihood, if not profes- 
sional profanity, in questioning a decision of 
Marshall; but it certainly seems as though the 
Federalist rather than the judge spoke on this 
occasion ; and if all his rulings had been as 
open to criticism and to suspicion as was this 
one, he might have left a less formidable repu- 
tation. 

Jefferson wrote to Hay as follows ; — 

" Laying down the position generally, that all per- 
sons owe obedience to subpcenas, he [Marshall] ad- 
mits no exception unless it can be produced in his 
law hooks. . . . The Constitution enjoins his [the 
President's! constant aojenev in the concerns of six 
millious of people. Is the law paramount to this, 



284 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

which calls on him on behalf of a single one ? Let 
us apply the judge's own doctrine to the case of him- 
self and his brethren. The sheriff of Henrico sum- 
mons him from the bench to quell a riot somewhere 
in his county. The federal judge is by the general 
law a part of the posse of the state sheriff. Would 
the judge abandon major duties to perform lesser 
ones ? Again : the com't of Orleans or Maine com- 
mands by subpoenas the attendance of all the judges 
of the Supreme Court. Would they abandon their 
posts as judges, and the interests of millions commit- 
ted to them, to serve the purposes of a single indi- 
vidual ? The leading principle of our Constitution is 
the independence of the Legislature, Executive, and 
Judiciary of each other ; and none are more jealous 
of this than the Judiciary. But would the Executive 
be independent of the Judiciary, if he were subject to 
the commands of the latter, and to imprisonment for 
disobedience, if the several courts could bandy him 
from pillar to post, keep him constantly trudging from 
north to south and east to west, and withdraw him 
entirely from his constitutional duties ? " 

A striking exemplification of the force of 
this argument would probably soon have been 
furnished, had not Burr escaped from a trial in 
Ohio by forfeiting his l»onds and fleeing abroad. 
For the President would surely have been sum- 
moned to that trial also, and, if he had obeyed 
the summons, would have been kept far froui 
the seat of government, in a then very inacces- 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 285 

sible region, at the moment when his presence 
was of exceptional importance at the capital, 
by reason of the doings of British cruisers on 
the Virginian sea-coast, and of the perilous con- 
dition of our relations with England. The de- 
cision of Marshall was disregarded by the 
President, and nothing more came of it. Only 
the Federalists used his conduct as a further 
support of their accusations of tyranny and 
injustice. 

When the final result was announced Jeffer- 
son directed George Hay, of counsel for the 
government, not to pay or dismiss any wit- 
nesses until their testimony should have been 
taken down in writing. "• These whole pro- 
ceedings," he said, '' will be laid before Con- 
gress, that they may decide whether the defect 
has been in the evidence of guilt, or in the law, 
or in the application of the law, and that they 
may provide the proper remedy for the past 
and the future." He was as good as his word, 
calling the attention of Congress to the matter 
in his next message in language of unmistakable 
tenor. The result ultimately was the passage 
of some useful legislation concerning treason, 
but, of course, nothing was done in relation to 
this especial trial, or any individual engaged 
therein. Matters of greater consequence than 
the punishment of a ruined man demanded at- 
tention. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PRESIDENT : SECOND TERM. — EMBARGO. 

Angry clouds were rolling up thick and fast 
from the Atlantic horizon over the benevolent 
head of the most pacific of earthly rulers. Jef- 
ferson seemed to make a modest and reasonable 
request of the European powers when he asked 
only that they would let the United States 
alone. But it was a request which neither 
France nor England had any mind to grant. 
Napoleon would tolerate no neutrality ; Great 
Britain added to her natural vindictiveness to- 
wards her quondam colonies a rapacious jeal- 
ousy of their growing commerce. Her estab- 
lished purpose was to make a double gain at 
once by confiscation and extermination, and she 
carried out this policy with brutal insolence, in 
defiance of international law and natural right. 
In November, 1804, Jefferson was obliged to 
admit that even in our own harbors our vessels 
were no longer safe from British guns. France, 
though equally ready, was fortunately less able 
to commit outrages. Yet the President hope- 
fully added : " The friendly conduct of the 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 287 

governments, from whose officers and subjects 
tliese acts have proceeded, in other respects and 
places more under their observation and con- 
trol, gives us confidence that our representa- 
tions on this subject will have been properly 
regarded." A vain hope ! A year passed and 
matters were worse rather than better. In the 
message of December 3, 1805, Jefferson could 
say nothing more satisfactory than that 

" our coasts have been infested and our harbors 
watched by private armed vessels, some of them 
without commissions, some with illegal commissions, 
others with those of legal form, but committing pirat- 
ical acts beyond the authority of their commissions. 
They have captured in the very entrance of our har- 
bors, as well as on the high seas, not only the vessels 
of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own 
also. They have carried them off under pretence of 
legal adjudication ; but not daring to approach a court 
of justice, they have plundered and sunk them by the 
way, or in obscure places where no evidence could 
arise against them ; maltreated the crews and aban- 
doned them in boats in the open sea or on desert 
shores without food or covering." 

January 17, 1806, he was further obliged to 
send in a special message on the same irritat- 
ing subject, accompanied by the " memorials 
of several bodies of merchants in the United 
States." In the subsequent debates a singular 



288 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

alliance was struck between the Federalists 
from the commercial districts of New England 
and John Randolph, with his half dozen follow- 
ers, — the '' Quids " as they were called. That 
there was no real community of interest be- 
tween the malcontent planter and the Eastern 
merchants may be gathered from Randolph's 
bold declaration that, " if this great agricultural 
nation is to be governed by Salem and Boston, 
New York and Philadelphia, and Baltimore 
and Norfolk and Charleston, let gentlemen 
come out and say so." Nevertheless the two 
bodies made common cause against the admin- 
istration. But their strange coalition was of 
no avail. The measure desired by the Presi- 
dent was carried by very handsome majorities 
in both Houses. It provided that after Novem- 
ber 15, 1806, certain articles should not be im- 
ported from the British dominions, nor, if of 
British manufacture, from any other places. 
Mr. Jefferson, still omnipotent, might well say, 
" A majority of the Senate means well," and 
" the House of Representatives is as well dis- 
posed as I ever saw one." He believed in mer- 
cantile pressure, and he was allowed to have his 
way. 

But his way worked poorly. Less than a 
month after this act was passed the English war 
ship Leander fired into an American coaster 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 289 

near Sandy Hook and killed a man. The Presi- 
dent ordered the Leander out of American wa- 
ters, and directed the arrest of her commander, 
which of course could not conveniently be made. 
Then, alarmed at the possible effect of this very 
moderate display of resentment, he wrote to 
Mr. Monroe, minister at London, deprecating 
the anger of the newly established and friendly 
cabinet of Mr. Fox. Public sentiment, he said, 
" did not permit us to do less than has been 
done. It ought not to be viewed by the min- 
istry as looking towards them at all, but merely 
as the consequences of the measures of their 
predecessors, which their nation has called on 
them to correct. I hope, therefore, they will 
come to just arrangements." Obviously Jef- 
ferson had forgotten something of what he had 
once learned concerning the British character, 
and did not divine the antidotes appropriate to 
its vices. It has been often said that if he had 
refrained from his prattle about peace, reason, 
and right, and instead thereof had hectored and 
swaggered with a fair show of spirit at this 
crucial period, the history of the next ten years 
might have been changed and the war of 1812 
might never have been fought. Probably this 
would not have been the case, and England 
would have fought in 1807, 1808, or 1809, as 
readily as in 1812. But however this may be, 

19 



290 THOMAS JEFFERSON-. 

tlie high- tempered course was the only one of 
any promise at all, and had it precipitated the 
war by a few short years, at least the nation 
would have escaped a long and weary journey 
through a mud slough of humiliation. But it 
is idle to talk of what might have been had 
Jefferson acted differently. He could not act 
differently. Though the people would proba- 
bly have backed him in a warlike policy, he 
could not adopt it. A great statesman amid 
political storms, he was utterly helpless when 
the clouds of war gathered. He was as miser- 
ably out of place now as he had been in the 
governorship of Virginia during the Revolu- 
tion. He could not bring himself to entertain 
any measures looking to so much as preparation 
for serious conflict. A navy remained still, as 
it had always been, his abhorrence. His ex- 
tremest step in that direction was to build gun- 
boats. Every one has heard of and nearly 
every one has laughed at these playhouse flotil- 
las, which were to be kept in sheds out of the 
sun and rain until the enemy should appear, 
and were then to be carted down to the water 
and manned by the neighbors, to encounter, 
perhaps, the fleets and crews which won the 
fight at Trafalgar, shattered the French navy 
at the Nile, and battered Copenhagen to ruins. 
It almost seemed as though the very harmless- 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 291 

ness of the craft constituted a recommendation 
to Jefferson. At least they were very cheap, 
and he rejoiced to reckon that nearly a dozen 
of them could be built for a hundred thousand 
dollars. So he was always advising to build 
more, while England, with all her fighting 
blood up, inflicted outrage after outrage upo^» 
a country whose ruler cherished such singular" 
notions of naval affairs. 

Yet Jefferson could vapor a little at times in 
such a quiet private way as involved no sub- 
stantial responsibility. He gave vent occasion- 
ally to bellicose sentiments concerning Spain, 
and at some moments was quite ready to fight-, 
her about the Louisiana boundaries, or for the 
Floridas. Once he said : '' We begin to broach 
the idea that we consider the whole Gulf 
Stream as of our waters, in which hostilities and 
cruising are to be frowned on for the present, 
and prohibited so soon as either consent or force 
will pernut us. We shall never permit another 
privateer to cruise within it, and we shall for- 
bid our harbors to national cruisers. This is 
essential for our tranquillity and commerce." 
This grandiloquence occurs in the very letter 
in which he admits that American ships are 
fired into, and American sailors are killed with 
impunity at the very mouths of American har- 
bors. Surely never was man more devoid of a 
sense of humor ! 



292 THOMAS JEFFERSO.S. 

Meantime, tbongli tlio British were infesting 
the Atlantic seaboard like pirates, Jefferson's 
perfect faith in his own measures and the peo- 
ple's equal confidence in him were unshaken. 
The Democrats continued to score gains in the 
elections, until the whole country seemed on the 
point of becoming solidly of that party. In 
this state of affairs the Ninth Congress came 
together on December 1, 1806 ; and on the 
next day Jefferson sent in a message in which 
he said : " The delays ... in our negotiations 
with the British government appear to have 
proceeded from causes which do not forbid the 
expectation that during the course of the ses- 
sion I may be enabled to lay before you their 
final issue." Nevertheless a further appropria- 
tion for more gunboats was recommended, as 
matter of course. They were fully as good for 
peace as for war ! 

A noteworthy passage in this message, though 
an episode in the present narrative, deserves a 
word. It appeared likely that there would soon 
be a surplus of income over expenditures, and 
the President said that the use to be made of 
that surplus demanded consideration. 

" Shall we suppress the impost and give that ad- 
vantao-e to foreis:ii over domestic manufactures ? On 
a few articles of more general and necessary use the 
suppression in due season will doubtless be right 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 293 

hut the great mass of the articles on which impost is 
paid is foreign luxuries, purchased by those only 
who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of 
them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its 
continuance and application to the great purposes of 
the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such 
other objects of public improvement as it may be 
thought proper to add to the constitutional enumera- 
tion of federal powers." 

Here was a somersault indeed, which might 
well confound those who remembered how Re- 
publicans had always denounced the theory of 
internal improvements. It helped the incon- 
sistency not at all that JefTerson admitted the 
necessity of a constitutional amendment in or- 
der to render lawful the expenditures which he 
contemplated. For his party had maintained 
not only that such projects were, but also that 
tliey ought to be, unconstitutional. Yet now 
Jefferson, who had preached that the Union was 
and ought to remain a league for the sole pur- 
pose of foreign relationships, that the States 
were and ought to remain supreme and inde- 
pendent governments in respect of all internal 
and domestic affairs, — Jefferson was actually 
urging this doctrine of internal improvements, 
on the very alleged ground that it would unify, 
nationalize, centralize the people and the gov- 
ernment ! *' By these operations," he said, " new 



294 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

channels of communication will be opened be- 
tween the States ; the lines of separation will 
disappear ; their interests will be identified ; 
and their union cemented by new and indisso- 
luble ties." Hamilton would have had some 
entertaining comments for this extraordinary 
politico-economical conversion to his principles. 
To return to foreign affairs: on December 
3, 1806, the President sent in a special message 
advising the " further suspension " of the Non- 
Importation Act which had not yet been put in 
force. His motive was that Mr. Fox had be- 
come prime minister and was supposed to cher- 
ish friendly sentiments towards the United 
States. The obedient majority did his bidding, 
encountering only a trifling opposition from the 
Federalists. February 19, 1807, the President 
announced that Monroe and Pinckney had at 
last succeeded in coming to terms with Great 
Britain ; though unfortunately the pleasure of 
the news was seriously dashed by rumors that 
impressment was not disposed of. Within a 
few days this disappointment was made certain 
by the receipt of the treaty, showing that the 
negotiators had followed the example of Mr. 
Jay in taking the best they could get rather 
than nothing. But this best seemed to Jeffer- 
son so bad that he would not for a moment 
consider it. Loath to fight for the national 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 295 

rights, at least he would not compromise them 
even by remote inference. In negotiation he 
had infinite courage and obstinacy. Accord- 
ingly, without communicating the treaty to the 
Senate, though that body was then in session, 
he at once returned it to Monroe, stating that 
it would not do at all, and that negotiations 
should be resumed for a widely different con- 
clusion. No one could find fault witli his opin- 
ion concerning the treaty, but the Federalists 
assailed the manner of the rejection as high- 
handed and autocratic. It had this character 
rather in appearance than in substance; yet 
such an act done by John Adams would not 
have escaped Jefferson's bitter animadversion. 

Though Jefferson sent back the treaty, he 
took care, at the same time, to manifest his still 
pacific temper by exercising the discretionary 
power which Congress had vested in him further 
to suspend the Non-Importation Act. Unfortu- 
nately a Christian and commercial disposition 
was hopelessly out of tune with the times. The 
English policy was simple : since the Americans 
would not figlit, they were the easier objects of 
plunder. The French principle was responsive : 
since the Americans are to be robbed, we must 
share in the booty. So from time to time came 
British Orders in Council, and retaliatory 
French decrees dated by the victorious Bona- 



296 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

parte from the conquered capitals, Berlin and 
Milan. The ultimate result of all these taken 
together was, that substantially nothing but 
their own coasting trade was left open to Ameri- 
can vessels. One half the mercantile world 
was sealed up by the British ; the other half 
by the French. Ships not complying with cer- 
tain regulations were liable to capture by Eng- 
lish cruisers ; ships complying with those 
regulations were subject to seizure by French 
vessels ; and vice versa. Nor could even the 
trade betwixt their own ports be carried on by 
the citizens of the United States with safety, for 
British vessels prowled even in our home waters 
in search of seamen, and in a few years carried 
off thousands of victims. Their audacity was 
even such that in June, 1807, the English war- 
ship Leopard actually fired a broadside into 
the American frigate Chesapeake, just outside 
.Hampton Roads, killing and wounding several 
men. The Chesapeake, not prepared for ac- 
tion, struck her colors ; the British commander 
boarded her and carried off four sailors, Ameri- 
can citizens, three of them at least being native 
born. One of them was forthwith hanged at 
Halifax. 

The news of this outrage threw the nation 
into a great rage. '' Never," said Jefferson, 
"since the battle of Lexington, have I seen this 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 297 

country in such a state of exasperation as at 
present." Some among the extreme Federalists 
of the New England States, terrified at the 
prospect of hostilities with England, justified 
the English commander ; but most of the party 
were too high-spirited for such conduct, and 
joined in the indignant outcry of the Republi- 
cans. *' The Federalists themselves coalesce 
with us as to the object, although they will re- 
tarn to their old trade of condemning every step 
Ave take towards obtaining it," said Jeiferson. 
He himself was deeply incensed, but acknowl- 
edged the obligation to take no irrevocable step 
in the heat of passion. " Duty," he considered, 
" requires that we do no act which shall commit 
Congress in their choice between war, non-inter- 
course, and other measures." But he at once 
dispatched a vessel to England to demand rep- 
aration, and summoned Congress to meet in 
special session on October 26, by which time he 
hoped to have a reply. " Reason," he said, 
'' and the usage of civilized nations require that 
we should give them an opportunity of disa- 
vowal and reparation. Our own interest, too, 
the very means of making war, requires that 
we should give time to our merchants to gather 
in their vessels and property and our seamen 
now afloat," It is plain that at this time he 
anticipated war. He declared that he was 



298 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

making " every preparation " for it '' which 
is within our power," and possibl}^ he really 
thought that he was getting the country into 
warlike shape. But he was "pitifully mistaken. 
He only got out some gunl)oats, did some tri- 
fling work on harbor fortifications, and gathered 
a small amount of supplies. Congress afterward 
made some petty appropriations to pay for these 
things. 

On October 26, 1807, Congress came to- 
gether. In both Houses a majority, even more 
overwhelming than ever before, consisted of ad- 
ministrationists, a term quite as properly to be 
used in describing them as either Republicans 
or Democrats, for they were thoroughly subject 
to the personal influence of Jefferson. It was 
evident that whatever measures he should rec- 
ommend would be promptly carried. Yet he 
was content in his message onl}^ to communi- 
cate the state of affairs, which was alread}^ well 
known, and to let the development of his policy 
await the English reply concerning the Chesa- 
peake outrage. This reply did not arrive until 
the second week in December, and then it was 
only learned that England would send a special 
envoy about the matter. 

A few days later, on December 18, Mr. Jef- 
ferson sent in a brief but momentous message. 
The communications accompanying it, he said, 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 299 

would show "the great and increasing dan- 
gers with which our vessels, our seamen, and 
merchandise are threatened on the high seas 
and elsewhere from the belligerent powers of 
Europe, and it being of great importance to 
keep in safety these essential resources, I deem 
it my duty to recommend the subject to the 
consideratiim of Congress, who will doubtless 
perceive all the advantages which may be ex- 
pected from an inhibition of the departure of 
our vessels from the ports of the United States." 
It was afterwards made a serious question 
whether or not, at the time of sending this 
message, the President had information of the 
British Orders in Council dated November 11, 
held back from formal issuance until November 
17, declaring a "paper blockade" of all the 
ports of France and her allies. The English 
ministry and their friends, the American Fed- 
eralists, always maintained that Jefferson had 
no proper knowledge of these Orders, and that 
liis recommendation of an embargo was a pre- 
mature and unjustifiable act of unfriendliness. 
The administi-ationists retorted that Jefferson 
had the intelligence, though not in official form. 
Really the point, if it could be made good, de- 
served to be disregarded, and could have been 
preferred only b}^ the immeasurable insolence 
of Mr. Canning. The communication would 



300 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

have been formally made if England had not 
behaved with shameful disingenuousness. She 
pretended to send Mr. Rose as a special emis- 
sary in the Chesapeake affair, but, besides ham- 
pering him with such preposterous conditions 
that he could only disclose them and sail home 
again, she also held back these Orders in Coun- 
cil, until literally a few hours after his depart- 
ure from London. The honorable motive was 
that tlie United States might receive and treat 
with him in ignorance of them. It hardly be- 
came a minister, guilty of such sharp practice, 
to complain that Mr. Jefferson had been a little 
too ready with a demonstration of unfriendli- 
ness. 

So now at last the presidential policy was an- 
nounced, — not war, but commercial pressure, 
an embargo. The history of the brief rem- 
nant of Mr. Jefferson's administration is little 
else than a narrative of Federalist attacks on 
this measure, and its defence by the admin- 
istrationists. , At first it was surprisingly pop- 
ular. In the Senate John Quincy Adams not 
only deserted his party in order to vote for it, 
but said : " The President has recommended 
this measure on his high responsibility. I 
would not consider, I would not deliberate, I 
would act. Doubtless the President possesses 
such further information as will justify the 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 301 

measure." The senators accepted this reason 
and this suggestion. Jefferson advised ; delib- 
eration was superfluous. In a session of only 
four hours, behind closed doors, under a suspen- 
sion of the rules, the bill was passed on the 
same day on which the message was received. 
In the House the Federalists kept up a debate 
for three days, but also with closed doors. Ex- 
cept for this brief delay they were powerless, 
and the bill was carried by 82 to 44. The vote, 
however, showed that some few Republicans 
had for once gone over to the Federalists and 
the " Quids." 

It has been pretty generally agreed in subse- 
quent times that the embargo was a blunder. 
Certainly the world has outgrown such meas- 
ures just as it has outgrown Jefferson's am- 
phibious gunboats. It is hard to realize that 
only three quarters of a century ago neither of 
these ideas, more especially that of the em- 
bargo, had become discredited. On the con- 
trary, in 1807-8 an embargo was a reputable 
measure of statecraft, supposed to be efficient 
both defensively and offensively. In the United 
States especially the people had been wont for 
more than a generation to regard it with pecul- 
iar favor. So now the policy was hailed with 
approbation by an overwhelming majority. 
Some Federalist newspapers had cried out for 



802 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

it ; and even many of the most influential mer- 
chants were strongly in favor of it, though pos- 
sibly from the interested motive of wearing out 
their poorer competitors. Moreover, it was 
supposed by all that this embargo, like earlier 
ones, would be of reasonably short duration ; 
and though the Federalists called attention to 
the fact that the present act, unlike its prede- 
cessors, did not establish any limit of time, yet 
few persons honestly feared that this omission 
had any dangerous significance. 

Jefferson argued very fairly that we should 
save the property of our citizens, and the per- 
sons of our sailors, by keeping our ships in our 
own harbors, whereas on the high seas both 
merchandise and men would be stolen. The 
device did not seem to him ignoble. Moreover, 
since commerce was to be forbidden in foreign 
no less than in domestic bottoms, he was able 
to depict great numbers of British merchants 
suffering loss and ruin, and throngs of British 
artificers reduced to starvation by the conse- 
quent curtailment of industry. English labor- 
ers, he said, could not, like Americans, readily 
adopt new occupations ; neither had tlie}^ that 
surplus of food which our farmers enjoyed. He 
spoke as if all Americans were farmers ; and 
gave no thought to the great seaboard popula^ 
tion wholly dependent upon trade. If they 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 303 

were to be hurt, he at least expected thetn to 
be kept silent by patriotism, while he antici- 
pated that the clamors of the English mal- 
contents would overawe Parliament and the 
administration. A certain amount of sound 
reason which really lay in these arguments, 
backed by the confident assent of a vast ma- 
jority of the nation, and soon corroborated by 
cheering accounts from Mr. Pinckney concern- 
ing the effect of the pressure in England, con- 
stituted perhaps a justification for Mr. Jefferson 
in the outset. But in order to make this justi- 
fication complete two things were necessary, 
both obviously implied in the reasoning of the 
administrationists. First : so far as the em- 
bargo was a domestic measure, i. e. designed to 
save our ships and sailors, it should obviously 
be accompanied by vigorous preparations for 
war, since it was absurd to regard an embargo 
as a permanently saving device ; before long it 
would constitute destruction ; it could only be 
used to save until the other means to that end 
customary among nations could be resorted to. 
Secondly : so far as the embargo had a foreign 
aspect, i, e. was designed to influence British 
legislation, it was properly experimental only, 
and so soon as the working of the experiment 
clearly promised failure, it should have been 
abandoned. 



804 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Now in point of fact it was impossible long 
to defend tlie measure in the former of these 
two aspects, because the lapse of time showed 
no serious purpose to protect by sufficient force 
the men and property subjected to the embargo. 
To save them by shutting them up until prepa- 
ration could be made to protect them when 
abroad was therefore clearly not the govern- 
ment policy. Hence the measure, if it was to 
be defended at all after the passing of a few 
months, must be defended in its second or for- 
eign character. But here, unfortunately, it was 
utterly and hopelessly indefensible. The clamor 
had been raised, and the British government 
had turned a deaf ear to it, for reasons alto- 
gether too attractive to be readily rejected. 
The merchants who were injured by the cessa- 
tion of the American trade w^ould probably 
suffer only temporarily ; at any rate they were 
only individual victims of a great national 
policy, destined to work an immense and last- 
ing benefit to the entire shipping and mercan- 
tile interests of their country. It was the 
established aim of the English government to 
annihilate American commerce, which already 
threatened a dangerous rivalry with their own. 
In ministerial eyes the embargo was a welcome 
and efficient aid, blindly furnished by their com- 
petitor against itself. Jefferson ought to have 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 305 

understood this, and appreciated that England 
coidd phiy at his game longer and with much 
more profit than the United States. For while 
in England a few suffered, in the United States 
the whole vast industries of shipping and com- 
merce were subjected to a process of starvation 
which in time would result in utter destruction. 
The longer the United States endured, the more 
they advanced the English scheme. That 
scheme was a permanent policy, whereas the 
United States were seeking only an immediate, 
specific object, namely, a recognition of their 
rights without enforcement by wan» Failing 
in this, as ultimately they did fail in it, they 
were wholly losers. Even succeeding in it, 
they would sustain a serious injury, because 
they would return much weakened to a sharp 
competition. Whereas in any possible event 
the English must gain considerably ; for every 
set-back encountered by American commerce 
was a positive advancement of English com- 
merce. 

It may be further remarked that if the em- 
bargo accomplished nothing as against England, 
neither did it do better as against France. That 
country, herself little hurt by the embargo, 
was satisfied to have it continue in force. For 
the permanent commercial ambition of England 
disturbed Napoleon very little. He was con- 

20 



306 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

tent to see that for the immediate present his 
foe was cut off from supplies, and subjected to 
a partial impoverishment. 

Unfortunately the English polic}^ was by no 
means intrinsically devoid of shrewdness or effi- 
ciency. The discouragement which American 
merchants endured for many years prior to the 
war of 1812, followed by the dangers and losses 
encountered during that war, constituted the 
first and powerful influence operating to destroy 
American commerce. Had the mercantile and 
shipping interests not been weakened by tlie 
prolonged emaciation inflicted by the home gov^- 
ernment, they might have remained sufficiently 
powerful to keep within reasonable limits that 
ill-advised legislation which has since completed 
the destruction initiated by Jefferson's meas- 
ures. Unintentionally he, who many years be- 
fore had expressed his antipathy to commerce, 
now did it an injury from which it never recov- 
ered. But it was through sheer ignorance, not 
in malice. 

As Jefferson did not see that he was serving 
the merchants very ill, so he would not admit 
that he was being false to his own principles. 
The Federalists said that no such example of 
" strong government " had ever been seen while 
they were in power. Their embargoes had 
been brief and simple affairs in comparison with 



PRi:SlDENT: SECOND TERM. 307 

this unlimited and monstrous one. But they 
were talking of what was really matter of dis- 
cretion rather than of principle ; for if an em- 
bargo was a lawful measure, its duration in any 
especial case was to be determined by a judg- 
ment upon the exigencies of that case. The 
argument that, because the act creating this 
embargo did not specify its length, therefore it 
did not " regulate " but destroyed commerce, 
and was unconstitutional, was very properly 
overruled by the Supreme Court. But Jeffer- 
son was not true to his principles, because, of 
his two reasons, one at least was thoroughly 
undemocratic. The endeavor to take care of 
the property and persons of American citizens 
by shutting them up, as it were, w^ithin doors 
was the extremity of paternal government. It 
might have borne a different character had it 
been a war measure, but within a very short 
time every one knew that it was not a war 
measure, but simply an act of paternity. Jef- 
ferson constantly spoke of it in this light. As 
such it was not only undemocratic, but emi- 
nently foolish. Jefferson might wisely have left 
to the merchants the care both of their profits 
and of their principal. They were not a stupid 
or a helpless class, and tliey understood their 
business far better than he did. The argu- 
ment was advanced by Quincy of Massachu- 



308 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

setts ; it could not be answered, but it was dis- 
regarded. 

Thus it appears that when, through Jeffer- 
son's influence, the embargo was imposed it was 
not to be regarded as absolutely a sound and 
wise measure. It required to be vindicated 
either by the doing of certain things in tlie 
United States, or the occurrence of certain 
events in England. After a reasonable time 
those things had not been done at home and 
those events had not taken place abroad. For 
the latter, Jefferson was not responsible ; for 
the former, he was. For he had but to say the 
word to Congress and he would have been 
strictly obeyed. He was so supreme and so 
well known to be a strong advocate of peace, 
that had he asserted the necessity of creating 
a navy and building fortifications, or even be- 
ginning hostilities, these steps would have been 
taken at once. 

Jefferson's biographers narrate with pleasure 
the at first enthusiastic and afterward patient 
support which Congress and the people yielded 
to the embargo policy, as if this constituted his 
justification. But the argument is unsatisfac- 
tory. It was Jefferson's function to be wiser 
than the people, to guide and instruct them ; or 
at least he assumed this duty. Congress and 
the nation persevered in the embargo for the 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 309 

same reason that they had enacted and ap- 
plauded it in the first instance ; and that reason 
liad been forcibly and clearly expressed in Mr. 
Adams' statement that his reliance was upon 
the " President's responsibility." Such also 
was the reliance of the embargo majorities in 
and out of Congress. Jefferson at first invited 
and afterward encouraged this faith. It was 
not until after the miscarriage and unpopular- 
ity of the measure had become unquestionable 
that he began to find his " responsibility " irk- 
some and to seek to shift it from his wearied 
shoulders. One thing, however, it is fair to 
say : when an administration blunders it usual- 
ly receives sound instruction from the opposi- 
tion ; Jefferson did not. The Federalists were 
even blinder than the administrationists. They 
showed their ignorance of the true bearing of 
the embargo by their criticisms upon it. Their 
horizon also was bounded by the immediate in- 
jury to Great Britain, and they stigmatized the 
measure as a " sly and cunning " endeavor to 
render surreptitious aid to France. They were 
even more opposed to warlike measures than 
were the Democrats, and had no better advice 
to give than an ignominious submission to all 
English demands. 

The embargo message, it will be remembered, 
was sent in to Congress on December 18, 1807. 



810 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

On March 23, 1808, Jefferson wrote to Levi 
Lincoln of Massachusetts, that '' it appears to 
be approved, even by the Federalists of every 
quarter except yours. The alternative was be- 
tween that and war, and in fact it is the last 
card we have to play short of war." By June 
23, 1808, he wrote, " the day is not distant 
when that [war] will be preferable to a longer 
continuance of the embargo." By August 9, 
we get glimpses of serious popular discontent. 
On that day the President writes to the Secre- 
tary of War, in language wonderfully different 
from that wdiich he had held at tlie time of the 
whiskey insurrection, and with a spirit that 
would have been better displayed towards trans- 
Atlantic enemies than towards suffering Ameri- 
can citizens : — 

" The Tories of Boston openly threaten insurrec- 
tion if their importation of flour is stopped. The 
next post will stop it. I fear your Governor is not 
up to the tone of these parricides, and I hope, on the 
first symptom of an open opposition of the law by 
force, you will fly to the scene and aid in suppressing 
any commotion." 

Jefferson was neither awed nor instructed by 
the loud grumbling in New England. The day 
which in March he had described as '' not dis- 
tant" gave little promise of drawing nearer. 
To the marine interest it seemed to be mys- 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 311 

teriously established in a perpetual offing ; it 
became in time as exasperating as a mirage. 

By September, 1808, Jefferson had become 
hopeless of affecting the policy of England by 
longer persistence in the embargo. Mr. Pinck- 
ney, he said, inferred from a conversation with 
Canning that the orders might be repealed : 
" but I have little faith in diplomatic inferences 
and less in Canning's good faith." Still the 
time glided on until Congress met on November 
7. The whole country waited anxiously to hear 
what Jefferson would say to that body ; would 
he declare that ''not distant" day to be at 
length near at hand ? would the disappointment 
abroad, the discontent at home, and later the 
loss by his party of all the New England States 
save one at the Presidential election, have any 
weight with him ? His message was non-com- 
mittal. He stated that he had intimated to 
England that a withdrawal of her Orders in 
Council would be met by a suspension of the 
embargo as to her, whatever might be the 
action of France ; but he admitted that the 
English cabinet had paid no attention to this 
communication. In a word, he acknowledged 
that his " candid and liberal experiment " had 
''failed," and said that now it must "rest with 
the wisdom of Congress to decide on the course 
best adapted " to the existing state of affairs 



812 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Apparently he meant to give no more advice 
and to take no more responsibility. He plumed 
himself a little because the embargo had " dem- 
onstrated to foreign nations the moderation and 
firmness which govern our councils." But he 
did not add that Great Britain had watched 
with exasperating complacency this patient en- 
durance with which the United States had 
suffered for her benefit. Neither did he men- 
tion that when our minister had made to Mr. 
Canning the offer to repeal the embargo if 
England would repeal the Orders, that sarcas- 
tic gentleman had replied that he should like to 
help the Americans to get rid of the restrictions 
which they found so very " inconvenient," 
though he really could not go so far as to with- 
draw his Orders for that purpose. Bonaparte 
also, with practical irony, had issued a decree 
for the seizure of all American ships found 
afloat, out of friendship, he said, to the United 
States, to aid them in preventing the escape 
of their vessels in contravention of their law. 
Jefferson, having no humor in his composition, 
did not amuse Congress by repeating these re- 
marks. 

By refraining from uttering a word pointing 
towards war, Jefferson made it plain enough 
that he did not desire it. The embargo, from 
being a temporary measure, was beginning to 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 313 

be embraced by him as a policy of indefinite 
duration. The result was a surprising indica- 
tion of his almost despotic supremacy. An 
enormous majority in the House of Represen- 
tatives adopted a series of resolutions indorsing 
the continuance of the embargo. In the Sen- 
ate a direct resolution to repeal it received 
only six yeas against twenty -five nays ; and on 
December 21 that body passed a very strong 
enforcing bill. But it was not long before the 
President and administrationists got alarming 
evidence of their folly. The Massachusetts 
Legislature condemned the enforcing bill as 
" unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional, and 
not legally binding." Governor Trumbull of 
Connecticut refused to comply with the Presi- 
dent's requisition for militia under the new act, 
and sent to the Legislature a message breath- 
ing the spirit of nullification. That body, in 
response, passed resolutions similar to those of 
Massachusetts. Evasions of the law were coun- 
tenanced by public opinion, and convictions 
could not be got before juries. Many influ- 
ential Federalists began to accustom their 
minds to the idea of secession, if not actually 
to form definite plans for it. Of this men- 
acing temper Jefferson received information. 
Whether or not it frightened him is doubtful. 
His conduct henceforth becomes so wavering 



314 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

that his true sentiments cannot be accurately 
ascertained. In November, 1808, he did not 
desire a repeaL On January 14, 1809, he said 
that the objects which the embargo was origi- 
nally designed to subserve were nearly attained, 
so that the measure was " now near its term." 
A few days afterward a bill was passed for an 
extra session of Congress in May next, with 
the design of repealing the embargo on June 1, 
and '' then resuming and maintaining by force 
our right of navigation." This apparently 
ought to have pleased Jefferson, if he clung to 
his opinion of January 14 ; but it did not. He 
still hugged the vision of peace with painful 
tenacity, and treated the policy of hostility as 
men treat old age, pushing it always a little in 
advance of the present day. He moaned some- 
what, because the exceptional " situation of the 
world," such as he declared never bad been be- 
fore and probably never would be again, had 
defeated his fair policy. " If we go to war 
now," he complained, '' I fear we may renounce 
forever the hope of seeing an end of our na- 
tional debt. If we can keep at peace eight 
years longer, our income, liberated from debt, 
will be adequate to any war, without new 
taxes or loans, and our position and increasing 
strength will put us liors d'insulte from any na- 
tion." Yet it was his friend and the leader of 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 315 

the administrationists in the House, Nicholas 
of Virginia, who, on January 25, introduced 
resolutions contemphiting a repeal of the em- 
bargo on June 1. An eager debate upon these 
resulted in a breaking up and reorganizing of 
parties and cliques which was quite kaleido- 
scopic. The date was finally set at March 4. 
This Yote was regarded as a defeat of the ad- 
ministration, but only in so far as it made the 
date of repeal earlier than the contemplated 
date of May 1 by nearly three months — not 
a serious period. Yet eighteen months later, 
partly probably in reference to this vote, and 
partly to subsequent votes of a like tenor, Jef- 
ferson wrote : " The Federalists during their 
short-lived ascendency have nevertheless, by 
forcing from us the repeal of the embargo, 
inflicted a wound on our interests which can 
never be cured." It looks very much as though 
the President did not know his own mind ; if 
he did, certainly he succeeded in preventing 
posterity from finding it out. The truth is that 
he knew his policy to have failed, y^t could not 
abandon it. He seems to have been bitterly 
disappointed, and a little frightened. He was 
pained to see his party defeated, but his chief 
anxiety was becoming personal, centring in the 
desire to escape from his embarrassing position. 
He had not longed more to get out of the gov* 



816 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ernorship of Virginiii than lie now longed to 
get oat of the presidency. At times he resolved 
not to try to make up his mind, not to do or 
advise anything. Even in December, 1808, he 
said : *' I have thought it right to take no part 
myself in proposing measures, the execution of 
which will devolve on my successor. I am, 
therefore, chiefly an un meddling listener to 
what others say." In other words he renounced 
the duty of governing the country for nearly 
three months before he was lawfully relieved 
from it. Toward the close of January he reit- 
erated, " I am now so near retiring that I take 
no part in affairs beyond the expression of an 
opinion. I think it fair that my successor 
should now originate those measures, of which 
he will be charged with the execution and re- 
sponsibility. . . . Five weeks more will relieve 
me from a drudgery to which I am no longer 
equal." 

These protestations may be believed. Jef- 
ferson appears in no degree responsible for the 
subsequent action of Congress in curtailing the 
duration of that measure which had originally 
been his own. On March 4, 1809, he was prob- 
ably almost as glad to leave the presidency as 
eight years before he had been to enter it. He 
was released from disappuintuient, from failure, 
and from imminent humiliation. During the 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 317 

closing months of his administration he had pre- 
sented a pitiable spectacle of a ruler helplessly 
confounded by the miscarriage of a policy. Yet 
his personal prestige, though diminished, was 
still immense. Probably three quarters of the 
nation believed him the greatest, wisest, and 
most virtuous of living statesmen. He had the 
rare pleasure of transmitting the government 
to a successor over whom his personal influence 
was very great, who was in thorough political 
sympathy with him, and towards whom he suc- 
ceeded in maintaining a personal friendliness 
without example in the history of the country. 
He had even to a considerable extent enjoyed 
the rare privilege of naming that successor. It 
is true that Madison was pointed out for the 
place by his official position, his eminent ser- 
vices, and his abundant ability ; yet at one time 
a strong effort was made to set up Monroe as a 
competitor. The movement made a brief show 
of becoming formidable. Jefferson avowed that 
he would take no sides as between two men, 
each of whom he loved and trusted. But Mon- 
roe entertained uncomfortable suspicions, which 
were fostered by the malicious communications 
of persons professing to be friends to him, and 
who certainly were enemies of the President. 
A slight coolness ensued in spite of Jefferson's 
protestations ; but it did vot last long. Jef- 



318 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

ferson was the most conciliatory of men, and 
Monroe had really no choice but to be pacified. 
Jetferson probably told the truth when he said 
that he took no part for either competitor. 
There is no evidence that he was in any way 
active in Madison's behalf. On the other hand, 
it cannot be denied that Madison had long be- 
fore been designed by him for the position, that 
this was perfectly well understood, and that the 
knowledge of his wishes was conclusive. 

Jefferson had been earnestly besought by 
many and influential bodies of citizens to be- 
come a candidate for a third term. Probably 
he could have had the honor, had he sought it. 
But he declined promptly and without the least 
wavering. He had already stretched his 
avowed principles concerning tlie duration of 
incumbency quite far enough ; neither could he 
now add anything to a fame so great that it 
could be increased more by declining than by 
accepting further distinctions. Moreover the 
times began to look stormy and uncomfortable. 
He would be sixty-five years old at the close of 
his second term ; he had been in public hfe, 
with trifling interruptions, for about forty years ; 
he had enjoyed an amount and constancy of 
good fortune rare in any polity and almost un- 
precedented in a republic. He retired with 
a. reputation and popularity hardly inferior to 



PRESIDENT: SECOND TERM. 319 

that of Washington. He could dictate the 
foreign and domestic polic}^ of seven millions of 
free and critical people, simply by virtue of the 
personal confidence reposed in his integrity and 
judgment. It is difficult to suggest any other 
example parallel to this. No personal influence 
of a civilian, not nourished in any degree by 
successful war, has ever been so great and so 
permanent over our people. In a fair measure 
this was deservedly the case, for with all his 
faults Jefferson had very civilized ideas and was 
the true friend of the commonalty. While he 
regarded their welfare as the noblest object of 
government, he did not confer benefits upon 
them as boons, like a political charity done by 
superiors to inferiors. He believed in them ; 
he esteemed their intelligence ; he not only re- 
spected their power, but he desired to see them 
use it, because he was firmly convinced that 
they would use it well. He was called a dema- 
gogue, but he was not, if that word indicates 
disingenuousness in preaching popular doc- 
trines. Jefferson had a profound and honest 
faith in his avowed principles, expecting indeed 
to gain by them, but only because he thought 
they were fundamentally right and therefore 
Buie in time to prevail. He differed from the 
time-serving politician, because he staked his 
individual success upon the success of what he 



320 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

deemed intrinsically right principles. He dif- 
fered even from the statesman who acts con- 
icientiously upon every measure, inasmuch as, 
beyond devising specific measures, he set forth 
a broad faith or religion in statesmanship, mak- 
ing special measures only single blocks in the 
wide pavement of his road. He was sometimes 
insincere, often inconsistent, generally prone to 
shun hurt and danger to himself ; but from the 
time when he began his great reforms in the 
Virginia House of Burgesses, the general ten- 
dency and large lines of his purposes and policy 
held with much steadiness in the noble direction 
of a perfect humanitarianism. To this day the 
multitude cherish and revere his memory, and 
in so doing pay a just debt of gratitude to a 
friend who not only served them, as many have 
done, but who honored and respected them, as 
very few have done. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

AT MONTICELLO : POLITICAL OPINIONS. 

Jefferson's interest in public affairs had be- 
come a part of his nature and could not sud- 
denly cease. Accordingly in his retirement he 
corresponded constantly with the new Presi- 
dent, exercising an authority in the Republican 
party not altogether unlike that which had been 
exercised by Hamilton, in private life, over 
the Federalists. But in time this relationship 
caused fault-finding, and gave rise to disagree- 
able insinuations that Madison was only the 
puppet of the ex-President. Of course Madi- 
son was no man's puppet, but such language 
was so fitted to wound his feelings and weaken 
his prestige that Jefferson, from a sense of 
delicacy, thereafterward greatly curtailed his 
communications. 

A few of Jefferson's opinions on public affairs 
deserve to be noted. He anticipated for the 
new administration a peaceful and prosperous 
career. War, indeed, still hovered in his view 
as a possibly " less losing business than unre- 
stricted depredation;" but in his desire to avoid 

21 



322. THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

it he advised, in the " present maniac state of 
Europe," not to " estimate the point of honor 
by the ordinary scale." Yet he was against 
making permanent concessions of principle ; and 
when a commercial treaty was in prospect he 
urged Madison not to allow the English to 
" whip us into a treaty " as " they did in Jay's 
case and were near doing in Monroe's." 

He indulged in a wonderful vision of terri- 
torial aggrandizement. Bonaparte, he said, 

" would give us the Floridas to withhold inter- 
course witli the residue of those [the Spanish] colo- 
uies. But that is no price ; because they are ours in 
the first moment of the first war ; and until a war they 
are of no particulai" necessity to us. But, although 
with difficulty, he will consent to our receiving Cuba 
into our Union. . . . That would be a price, and I 
would immediately erect a column on the southern- 
most limit of Cuba and inscribe on it 7ie phis ultra as 
to us in that direction. We should then have only 
to include the North in our confederacy, which would 
be of course in the first war, and we should have 
such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed 
since the creation ; and I am persuaded no constitu- 
tion was ever before so well calculated as ours for 
extensive empire and self-government." 

In 1809 this was tolerably gorgeous day- 
dreaming ! 

He had by this time so far modified his old 



A T MONTI CELL 0: POLnu^.i^ ^. .NIONS. 323 

hostility to commerce and manufactures as to 
say : ^' An equilibrium of agriculture, manu- 
factures and commerce is certainly become 
essential to our independence. Manufactures 
sufficient for our consumption, of what we raise 
the raw material, (and no more) ; commerce 
sufficient to carry the surplus produce of agri- 
culture beyond our own consumption, to a mar- 
ket for exchanging it for articles we cannot 
raise, (and no more)." 

He wrote to Gallatin urging him to be per- 
sistent in extinguishing the national debt. 
" The discharge of the debt," he said, '' is vital 
to the destinies of our government, and it hangs 
on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. ... I had 
always cherished the idea that you would fix on 
that object the measure of your fame and of the 
gratitude which our country will owe you." He 
had a warm regard for Gallatin, and when in 
the winter of 1810-11 attacks were made on the 
Secretary, and seams began to open in the party, 
Jefferson exerted all his authority to stay the 
disagreement. He preached conciliation elo- 
quently, and laid down a rule of adherence to 
party which expressed happily the middle 
course between excessive individual independ- 
ence and a sacrifice of conscientious opinion. 

In the spring of 1812 Jefferson saw that war 
was imminent. " Our two countries," he wrote 



324 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

to an English friend, " are to be at war, but 
not you and I. And why should our two coun- 
tries be at war when by peace we can be so 
much more useful to one another ? Surely the 
world will acquit our government from having 
sought it. Never before has there been an 
instance of a nation bearing so much as we 
have borne." This was true enough ; Jefferson 
and Madison had carried endurance far past the 
praiseworthy limit ; they were not accountable 
for the blood-letting to come. 

Jefferson contemplated in his usual sanguine 
temper a war which turned out so very disas- 
trously. He modestly hoped that we should 
confine ourselves to the defence of our harbors 
and to the conquest of the British possessions 
in North America ! " The acquisition of Can- 
ada," he said, " this year, as far as the neigh- 
borhood of Quebec, would be a mere matter of 
marching, and would give us experience for 
the attack of Halifax the next, and the final 
expulsion of England from the American conti- 
nent." Of course he showed his native incapac- 
ity for military affairs. " The partisans of Eng- 
land here," he said, "have endeavored much to 
goad us into the folly of choosing the ocean in- 
stead of the land for the theatre of war. That 
would be to meet their strength with our own 
weakness, instead of their weakness with oui 



AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS. 325 

strengtli." Quite the reverse of this proved to 
be the ease. Strange as it may seem, he Avas 
" importuned from several quarters to become 
a candidate for the presidency in 1812." So 
blind was the admiration of his partisans ! 
Further, Mr. Randall also tells us, " on the 
authority of an intimate friend of Mr. Madison, 
who heard the fact from his own lips," that 
Madison offered the position of Secretary of 
State to Jefferson. Upon this subject Jefferson 
wrote to Duane, October 1, 1812 : " I profess 
so much of the Roman principle as to deem it 
honorable for the general of yesterda}^ to act as 
a corporal to-day, if his services can be useful 
to his country ; holding that to be false pride 
which postpones the public good to any private 
or personal considerations. But I am past ser- 
vice. The hand of age is upon me. The de- 
cay of bodily faculties apprises me that those of 
the mind cannot but be impaired." He con- 
tinues in this melancholy strain, and concludes 
by expressing his satisfaction that he " retains 
understanding enough to be sensible how much 
of it he lias lost and to avoid exposing himself 
as a spectacle for the pity of his friends; that 
he has surmounted the difficult point of know- 
ing when to retire." This might have been an 
excuse, but probably was not ; for he was now 
constantly harping upon the failure of his fac- 
ulties. 



326 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

He was glad finally to have peace concluded ; 
he hoped that, " having spared the pride of 
Eno^laiid her formal acknowledgment of the 
atrocity of impressment, . . . she will concur in 
a convention for relinquishing it." Otherwise 
the pacification could be nothing more than a 
" truce^ determinable on the first act of impress- 
ment of an American citizen." He deprecated 
" the maniac course of hostility and hatred " 
pursued by England toward the United States. 

" I hope ill God she will change. There is not a 
nation on the globe with whom I have more earn- 
estly wished a friendly intercourse on equal condi- 
tions. ... I know that their creatures represent me 
as personally an enemy to England. But fools only 
can believe this, or those who think me a fool. I am 
an enemy to her insults and injuries. I am an en- 
emy to the flagitious principles of her administration, 
and to those which govern her conduct towards other 
nations. But would she give to morality some place 
in her political code, and especially would she exer- 
cise decency and, at least, neutral passions towards 
us, there is not, I repeat it, a people on earth with 
whom I would sacrifice so much to be in friend- 
ship." 

Certainly no man was ever less prone to 
nourish a feud than was Jefferson. He always 
wanted to conciliate, to forgive, to restore lost 
or shattered frionrlships. About this time he 



AT MONTICELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS. 327 

made up his old quarrel witli John Adams, and 
was corresponding with him most cordially. 
This is only one of many instances of an attrac- 
tive trait in his character, giving a most ami- 
able notion of him, — yet he left behind him 
those venomous "Anas," among the most un- 
fortunate of all deeds of the pen. Beneath an 
universal good-will it is shocking to find rank- 
ling a vindictiveness so relentless and so igno- 
bly indulged. How differentl}'^ could we tliink 
of him were it not for this bequest which, like 
the cloven foot, peeps out from beneath liis ap- 
parent guise of broad charity and kindliness. 

In 1820 he was profoundly disturbed by the 
Missouri Compromise, which seemed to him 
pregnant with a brood of terrible retributive 
disasters. 

" This momentous question," he said, " like a fire- 
bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. 
I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It 
is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a 
reprieve only, not a final sentence." " The coinci- 
dence of a marked principle, moral and political, with 
a geographical line, once conceived, I feared would 
never more be obliterated from the mind ; that it 
would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing 
irritations until it would kindle such mutual and 
mortal hatred as to render separation preferable to 
eternal discord-" 



328 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

He foresaw civil war. " Are we then to see 
again Athenian and Lacedsemonian confedera- 
cies ? To wage another Peloponnesian war ? " 
Yet though he was thus correctly prescient of 
the awful future, he was sadly blind alike to 
the character and to the result of the conflict. 
^' It is not," he said, " a moral question, but 
one merely of power. Its object is to raise a 
geographical principle for the choice of a Pres- 
ident, and the noise will be kept up till that is 
effected." The moral element was still far be- 
neath the surface, and common men might not 
have suspected its existence ; but Jefferson 
should have done so. He was not more ex- 
cusable when he anticipated that the North 
would be the section to suffer most from the 
schism. The Northerners, he predicted, " will 
find the line of separation very different from 
their 36° of latitude, and as manufacturing and 
navigating States they will have quarrelled 
with their bread and butter; and I fear not 
that after a little trial they will think better of 
it, and return to the embraces of their natural 
and best friends." Such is prophecy in states- 
manship. 

Further, he was decidedly of the opinion that 
in the compromise Congress interfered unjusti- 
fiably with states' rights. He condemned the 
endeavor " to reojulate the condition of the dif* 



AT ^rONT I CELLO: POLITICAL OPINIONS. 329 

ferent descriptions of men composing a State. 
This certainly is the exclusive riglit of every 
State, which nothing in the Constitution has 
taken from them and given to the general gov- 
ernment." His views concerning emancipation 
had apparently undergone little change since 
the early days when he had concocted a scheme 
for it, except that apparently he gave greater 
weight now than previously to the practical 
difficulties. '^ The cession of that kind of prop- 
erty [slaves], for so it is misnamed, is a baga- 
telle which would not cost me a second thought, 
if in that way a general emancipation and ex- 
2)atriatlon could be effected ; and gradually and 
with due care, I think, it might be. But as it 
is we have the wolf by the ears, and can neither 
hold him nor safely let him go." 

In 1821 Jefferson had a sharp revival of his 
old jealousy of the judiciary, and published 
some letters on the subject. Later, during the 
administration of J. Q. Adams, he was also 
greatly annoyed by the complete victory of the 
policy of internal improvement. He now gave 
up this battle as hopelessly lost to his side. 
" The torrent of general opinion " he recog- 
nized as " irresistible," He was very mournful 
about it. He could not reconcile himself to a 
liberal construction which seemed to him a per- 
version of the Constitution, no matter how 



330 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

great advantages could be gained thereby. Ap- 
parently he was also much less tolerant of the 
principle itself than he had been when the en- 
terprises would have fallen beneath his own 
control, and would have brought popularity to 
his own administration. He suggested an ab- 
surd way of preserving the sanctity of his doc- 
trine in the abstract, while it was being shat- 
tered to fragments in practice. He drew up 
for the Virginia Legislature a verbose " Dec- 
hiration and Protest," reciting the powerless- 
ness of Congress in the premises, and closing 
with an enactment in general terms, whereby 
the State ratified and indorsed, by virtue of its 
own supreme power and authority in such mat- 
ters, all the acts for internal improvements 
which Congress should pass in the future. This 
was silly, but Jefferson was greatly perturbed 
by what he saw going forward. He deemed 
the building of canals and roads with the na- 
tional money a breach of the national compact 
such as might in time even justify a dissolu- 
tion. For this, he said, the provocation was not 
yet sufficient ; it was " the last resource, not to 
be thought of until much longer and greater 
sufferings ;" but it was a possibility in the days 
to come. His alarm was groundless, and his 
cure useless. But Jefferson was growing old. 
This is the last of his interfer(^nces m publio 
affairs which is worth v cf mention. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS,— 
DEATH. 

There was a strong theatrical tinge in Jef- 
ferson's composition. When lie retired from 
the presidency it was to pose during his old 
age as the '' Sage of Monticello," the good and 
wise old man, the benefactor of his kind, the 
statesman-philosopher. He recognized that it 
was proper, nay, incumbent, and even inevitable, 
to assume this role ; he did it readily, without 
anxiety as to his perfect success in the part, 
and it must be acknowledged tliat he played it 
to the end very well. He at first expected to 
be the *' hermit of Monticello;" but he soon 
found that he was of that class of hermits 
whose fame is so great among the nations that 
all the world flocks to gaze at them, so that re- 
treat becomes a series of popular levees. The 
door of his mansion, hospitable even bej^ond 
Virginian precedent, stood ever open, and the 
stream of visitors passed ceaselessly in and out. 
Relatives came and brouglit their families, 
fathers and mothers with broods of children, 



832 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

and stayed for months ; friends treated the 
generous roof-tree as their own ; people of dis- 
tinction or good social position claimed and 
received briefer entertainment. All this was 
pleasant, and the gratification given by such 
visitors generally more than offset the inconvem 
iences. But it was less agreeable to have the 
imperfectly civilized people at large behave as 
if Monticello were the public domain where 
the ex-President was kept always on exhibition. 
Every one in the United States, of any enter- 
prise, sooner or later found his way to this ex- 
traordinary "hermitage." The following amus- 
ing sketch of the household occurs in a letter 
quoted in Randall's Life : — 

" We had persons from abroad, from all the States 
of the Union, from every part of the State, men, 
women, and children. In short, almost every day for 
at least eight months of the year brought its contin- 
gent of guests. People of wealth, fashion, men in 
office, professional men, military and civil, lawyers, 
doctors, Protestant clergymen, Catholic priests, mem- 
bers of Congress, foreign ministers, missionaries, In- 
dian agents, tourists, travellers, artists, strangers, 
friends. Some came from affection and respect, some 
from curiosity, some to give or receive advice or in- 
struction, some from idleness, some because others 
set the example." 

The crowds actually invaded the house itself» 



AT MONTICELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 333 

and stood in the corridors to watch Jefferson 
pass from one room to another ; they swarmed 
over the grounds and gaped at him as he walked 
beneath his trees or sat on his piazza. All this 
was flattering, but it was also extremely irk- 
some ; it too closely resembled the existence of 
the beast in the menagerie. Yet though Jeffer- 
son sometimes fled from it for a few days of 
hiding at a distant farm, he appears wonder- 
fully seldom to have been lacking in the patient 
benignity which his part imposed upon him. 
The most impertinent had their gaze out unmo- 
lested ; only a few complaints were made pri- 
vately to friends. 

In time that came to pass which Jefferson 
ought to have foreseen in the early stages of 
this fashion of life. He was keeping a large 
and naturally a very popular hotel, at which no 
guest ever thought of paying his score. The 
housekeeper at times had to provide fifty beds ; 
inevitably the detail of slaves for the house and 
stables left few field hands for productive labor ; 
all the produce of the Monticello estate was 
eaten up by the guests ; and of course much 
other food and drink had to be purchased, and 
much wear and tear to be made good. The 
form of entertainment was necessarily simple ; 
yet Jefferson lived in what was deemed good 
style in that time and neighborhood. Inevita- 



334 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

bly beneath these reducing processes his fortune 
steadily and much too rapidly shrank. He had 
also experienced some severe blows. For ex- 
ample, the pre-revolutionary debt upon his 
wife's estate was due in England, and the story 
of its payment was very hard, though very 
honorable to him. In order to meet it he sold 
some of her lands at a gold valuation, but 
finally got the money in paper '^ worth two and 
a half per cent, of its nominal value." This 
sum he deposited in the state treasury under a 
statute, made during the Revolution, whereby 
debts owing to English subjects could be paid 
to the State, which then assumed the indebt- 
edness and acquitted the debtor. But after the 
close of the war he declined to avail himself 
of this acquittance. 

" 1 am desirous of arranging with you," he wrote 
to the creditors, " such just and practicable condi- 
tions as will ascertain to you the terms at which you 
will receive my part of your debt, and give me the 
satisfaction of knowing that you are contented. 
What the laws of Virginia are or may be, will in no 
wise influence my conduct. Substantial justice is my 
object, as decided by reason and not by authority 
or compulsion. ... I am ready to remove all diffi- 
culty arising from this deposit, to take back to myself 
the demand against the State, and to consider the 
deposit as originally made for myself and not for 
you," 



AT MONT I CELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 335 

Thus the discharge of £3,749 12s. ultimately 
"swept nearl}^ half of his estate," while he got 
back from the state treasury so littlo that he 
was wont to say concerning the land which he 
had parted with, that he had " sold it for a 
great coat." This costly honesty appears the 
more creditable, because Jefferson's financial 
resources had been much diminished by the 
ravages of the British troops, of which the 
money value, says Mr. Randall, "more than 
equalled the amount of his British debt and its 
interest during the war." 

Subsequently during his public life Jefferson 
sometimes lived on his salary, sometimes ex- 
ceeded it, and only while he was Vice-President 
saved anything from it. Mr. Randall estimates 
his property at 8200,000 when he left the presi- 
dency, but does not make it perfectly clear 
whether or not this ought to be reduced by the 
deduction of some indebtedness. It was a hand- 
some amount ; but a part of it consisted of his 
house and furniture, and a very expensive li- 
brary ; the remainder was lands and slaves, 
from which, after the Monticello estate and 
negroes had been substantially neutralized, as 
has been above explained, the net income was 
far from equal to the demands upon it. Times 
and crops also often went against him. When 
the owner of property thus invested once begins 



336 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

to overrun his income, he enters on the road to 
ruin. By degrees Jefferson became a poor man, 
and indeed worse than poor, since he was in- 
volved in pecuniary embfirrassments. Before 
matters had reached this stage he had sold his 
library to Congress for $23,950 ; but this restor- 
ative did not long clieck the decline. In 1819 
an indorsement which he had made for his 
friend, Wilson Gary Nicholas, cost him $20,000. 
This blow consummated his ruin. Nicholas is 
said to have been not blameworthy in the mat- 
ter, but the victim of ill fortune ; and to have 
been crushed at the disaster which he brought 
upon his friend. The kindness and delicacy 
with which Jefferson took especial pains to treat 
him were remarkable, and on one or two occa- 
sions were actually toucliiug. 

But debts must be paid, no matter how hon- 
ored, good, or distinguished is the debtor, and 
ex-President Jefferson occupied no better posi- 
tion than any other planter who was very near 
insolvency. It was an unfavorable time for 
turning a large estate into money ; and a sale in 
ordinary fashion would leave Jefferson substan- 
tially a pauper, even if not still a debtor. To 
avoid this he desired to resort to a device then 
scarcely obsolete in Virginia. He petitioned 
the Legislature for leave to dispose of his prop- 
erty at a fair valuation by lottery. By this 



AT MONT I CELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 337 

means, he said, " I can save the house of Monti- 
cello, and a farm adjoining, to end my days in 
and bury my bones. If not, I must sell house 
and all here and carry my family to Bedford, 
where I have not even a log hut to put my 
head into." When the proposition was broached 
some opposition was threatened, and its suc- 
cess was not certain. Jefferson wrote, with evi- 
dent humiliation, " I perceive there are greater 
doubts than I had apprehended, whether the 
Legislature will indulge my request to them. 
It is a part of my mortification to perceive that 
I had so far overvalued myself as to have 
counted on it with too much confidence. I 
see," he sadly adds, '' in the failure of this 
hope, a deadly blast of all my peace of mind 
during my remaining days." But he was spared 
a disappointment so severe. The opposition 
was feeble and the authorizing bill passed both 
Houses by very gratifying majorities. The 
scheme, however, was not carried out. When 
the news of it spread through the country 
many offers of money were made. Public 
meetings were called, and subscriptions were 
started in the large cities. It seemed as though 
the people who, as Randall justly remarks, had 
literally eaten up most of the ex-President's 
property, would now restore it to him. Jeffer- 
son had repudiated the idea of a loan or gift 

22 



338 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

from the state treasury, saying: " In any case 
I wish nothing from the treasury. The pecu- 
niary compensations I have received for my 
services from time to time have been fully to 
my own satisfaction." But these offers of vol- 
untary assistance from the people he was grate- 
fully willing to accept. " I liave spent three 
times as much money, and given my whole life 
to my countrymen," he said, " and now they 
nobly come forward in the only way they can, 
to repay me and save an old servant from be- 
ing turned like a dog out of doors." " No cent 
of this is wrung from the tax-payer ; it is the 
pure and unsolicited offering of love." 

But though this liberality smoothed Jeffer- 
son's last days, it had little other effect ; for 
before it had reached that stage at which it 
could complete his relief, he died. The debts 
still hung over his estate ; the subscriptions 
of course ceased ; the lottery proved a failure, 
and the executor had to dispose of all the as- 
sets. The lands brought ridiculously low prices, 
— three to ten dollars per acre, — and tlie pro- 
ceeds did not pay the debts. But the executor 
himself made good the deficit, so that no cred- 
itor suffered through Jefferson's misfortunes. 

The chief interest and occupation of Jeffer- 
son's last years were concentrated in establish- 
ing the University of Virginia, of which he 



AT MONT /CELLO: PERSONAL .VJl-^ERS. 339 

was made Rector. In this business ne labored 
with assiduit}^ and success. But he enconn- 
tered many obstacles and had some unworthy 
mortifications. He was especially vexed at the 
story which got abroad, and which impeded his 
efforts not a little, that he designed to give 
the college an anti-Christian character. It is 
needless to say that he had no sucli purpose ; 
though he certainly did not intend it to be in 
the control of any especial creed. Jefferson's 
religious opinions, both during his life-time and 
since his death, have given rise to much contro- 
versy. His opponents constantly cliarged him 
with infidelity, his friends as vigorously denied 
the charge. The discussion annoyed and irri- 
tated him ; but he would not put an end to it 
by making any statement concerning his belief. 
It was his private affair, he said with some 
temper, and he would not aid in establishing 
an inquisition of conscience. His grandson says 
that even his own family knew no more than 
the rest of the world concerninsf his relis^ious 
opinions. One cannot but think that, had he 
been a firm believer in Christianity, he wonld 
probably not have regarded such reticence as 
justifiable, but would have felt it his duty to 
give to the faith the weight of liis influence, 
which he well knew to be considerable. Nearly 
all the evidence which has been collected falls 



340 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

into the same scale, going to show that he was 
not a Christian in any strict sense of that word. 
It is true that the phrase bears widely differ- 
ent meanings to different persons ; but proba- 
bly the most liberal admissible interpretations 
would hardly make it apply to Jefferson. Mr. 
Randall says that he was a Christian, but 
founds the statement on evidence which goes 
to show only that Jefferson believed in a God 
or Supreme Being who concerned himself about 
the affairs of men. Of course this is by no 
means proof, perhaps not properly even evi- 
dence, of a belief in Christ. He went to church 
with tolerable regularity ; he spoke witli the 
utmost reverence of Christ as a moral teacher ; 
but he carefully refrained from speaking of 
him as anything else than a human teacher. 
In the most interesting letter which he ever 
wrote on the subject, he says : " I am a Chris- 
tian in the only sense in which he [Jesus] 
wished any one to be ; sincerely attached to his 
doctrines in preference to all others ; ascribing 
to himself every human excellence ; and be- 
lieving he never claimed any other." He com- 
pares Christ with Socrates and Epictetus, and 
says that when he died at about thirty-three 
years of age, his reason had "not yet attained 
the maximum of its energy, nor the course of 
his preaching, which was but of three years at 



AT MONTJCF.LLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 341 

most, presented occasions for developing a com- 
plete system of morals. Hence the doctrines 
which he really delivered were defective as a 
whole ; and fragments only of what lie did de- 
liver have come to us, mutilated, misstated, and 
often untelliglble." This hardly describes the 
Christian notion of God's . revelation. After 
such language it was not worth while to add 
the saving clause, that " the question of his 
being a member of the Godhead, or in direct 
communication with it, . . . is foreign to the 
present view." To my mind it is very clear 
that Jefferson never believed that Christ was 
other than a human moralist, having no pe- 
culiar inspiration or divine connection, and dif- 
fering from other moralists only as Shakespeare 
differs from other dramatists, namely, as greatly 
their superior in ability and fitness for his func- 
tion. But those admirers of Jefferson, wlio 
themselves believe in the divinity of Christ, 
will probably refuse to accept this view, though 
they find themselves without sufficient evidence 
conclusively to confute it. 

Jefferson, in his later years, became much 
concerned about the proper historical presenta- 
tion of his times, and of the part played by 
himself and his party therein. He was proba- 
bly the greatest letter writer who ever lived ; 
he always wrote freely, and expressed himself 



342 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

vigorously. The hitter part of his life was made 
a burden by his rule to give a full and sufficient 
answer to every civil letter which he received. 
Inevitably he sometimes fell into inconsistencies 
and errors ; and sometimes said things which 
he would afterward wish unsaid. At times the 
thought of all that he had committed to paper 
alarmed him, and he declared that *' the treach- 
erous practice some people have of publishing 
one's letters without leave " should be made 
" a penitentiary felony." Yet generally he re- 
garded his own letters, "all preserved," written 
between 1790 and the close of his public life, 
as a great reservoir from which correct infor- 
mation could be drawn by posterity. He spoke 
with extreme acrimony of Marshall's " Life of 
Washington," as a purely partisan production. 
He was very much disturbed at the prospect of 
J. Q. Adams editing the writings of John Ad- 
ams. "Doubtless," he said, "other things are 
in preparation, unknown to us. On our part 
we are depending on truth to make itself known, 
while history is taking a contrary set which 
may become too inveterate for correction." 
Shortly before his death he wrote to Madison : 
" To myself you have been a pillar of support 
through life. Take care of me when dead." 
All this anxiety lest the posthumous historical 
literature of the Federalists should have an in- 



AT 31 ONTI CELLO: PERSONAL MATTERS. 343 

fliieiice Avith posterity superior to that of the 
Democrats, comes rather queerly from one who 
had the *' Anas " secretly locked up in his desk. 
Yet his fears were justified by the event ; the 
Federalists have to this day been more success- 
ful than the Republicans in getting their side 
forcibly and plausibly before the reading public. 
The weaknesses of old age crept over Jeffer- 
son very gradually, as they are wont to do over 
sound and vigorous men. He had great dread 
of a helpless, and especially of an imbecile, se- 
nility, and watched for signs of mental decay 
with an almost morbid apprehensiveness. Cer- 
tainly he suspected more symptoms of this evil 
than really existed ; for though inevitably the 
vigor of his intellect became impaired in his 
extreme years, yet the clearness of his mind re- 
mained even until the weakness of the closing 
hours began to deprive him of all knowledge 
of things earthly. There is very little com- 
plaining, at least in the published letters written 
in his last years; but there is a certain air of 
sombreness and melancholy. He could not well 
find fault with the career which had been allot- 
ted to him ; but he could hardly recognize 
cheerfully that his usefulness was over, his au- 
thority a thing of the past, himself, while still 
alive, almost a character of history. His power 
had been too great to be cheerfully laid down. 



344 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

He appears to have been resigned, courage- 
ous, tranquil, and yet one gets the idea that as 
he drifted away from active affairs he was not 
happy, and that death must have lost its ter- 
rors for him some time before it actually came. 
The winter of 1826 found him evidently fast 
breaking. In the middle of March he made 
his will. In the spring we hear of him reading 
in the Bible, and the Greek tragedies ; but he 
was not much longer able to do even this. As 
the 4th of July, 1826, approached he was 
known by himself, and by all the affectionate 
family-circle gathered around him, to be dying. 
He expressed a strong desire to live until that 
day should dawn ; yet he seemed so weak, and 
the last laggard hours moved so slowly that his 
friends, to whom this wish of his seemed to 
have such a sanctity that they could not bear 
to have him disappointed, even in the almost 
unconscious hour of departure, feared that he 
would not endure so long. But life ebbed 
slowly from that strong frame. It was nearly 
one o'clock on that great day when he expired, 
John Adams died at Quincy a few hours later, 
with the words, " Thomas Jefferson still sur- 
vives," struggling from his lips at the moment 
before they became silent forever. The triple 
coincidence is more singular than anything else 
of the kind in historv. 



APPENDIX. 



Judge Pichering. It seems that the language of 
the text concerning Judge Pickering does an unin- 
tentional injustice to the memory of a worthy man. 
Prof. Andrew P. Peabody, D. D., who is familiar 
with the local reminiscences and traditions concern- 
ing the judge, informs me that he was a man of ex- 
cellent character and in the best repute in New 
Hampshire, and that the eccentricities and impro- 
prieties which served as the basis of his impeachment 
were only the earlier manifestations of a mental 
aberration which soon afterward developed into un- 
questionable insanity. Further authorities in favor 
of the judge may be found in William Plumer's 
" Life of William Plumer," edited by Rev. Andrew 
P. Peabody, Boston, 1857, pp. 272-274; and in Na- 
thaniel Adams' " Annals of Portsmouth," Ports- 
mouth, 1825, pp. 332-355. 



INDEX. 



Idasis, John, share in author- 
ship of Declaration of Independ- 
ence, 33 ; hostility to Washing- 
ton, 35 ; unpopularity of, 35 ; 
share in debate on Declaration, 
38 ; finds fault with Declaration, 
39 ; charged by Jefferson witli 
being a monarchist, 127 ; mis- 
understanding with Jefferson, 
growing out of publication of 
" Riglits of Man," 131; elected 
President, 173, 174 ; relations 
with Jefferson at time of his 
inauguration, 177-179 ; anger 
against France, 180 : but sends 
new mission, in hopes of peace, 
181 ; announces failure of French 
mission, 188 ; behavior concern- 
ing the X Y Z correspondence, 
189 ; sends new mission to France, 
and divides Federalist party, 193 ; 
defeated in election of 1800, 200 ; 
his "midnight appointments," 
209 ; his retreat from Washing- 
ton, 210; nominations of judges, 
221 ; reconciliation with Jeffer- 
son, 327 ; death, 344. 

A.dams, John Q., writes letters of 
Publicola, 132 ; goes over to the 
administrationists at time of the 
Embargo Bill, 300. 

Alien Act, passage of, 193. 

Ambuscade, captures the Grange, 
152. 

" Anas," written by Jefferson, 109, 
113 ; quoted, 115, 121, 125, 120. 

Bishop, Samuel, appointment of, 224. 
Bonaparte, Napoleon, schemes for 

colonization in America, 245 ; 

issues decrees of Berlin and 

Milan, 29G ; remarks about the 

e.nbargo, 312. 
B itotourt, Lord, dissolves the 

House of Biurgesses, 18. 



Burr, Aaron, in the third presi- 
dental election, 174 ; vote for, in 
electoral colleges in 1800, 200 ; 
schemes for making him Presi- 
dent instead of Jefferson, 204 ; 
his own behavior and its results, 
207 ; loses nomination for vice- 
presidency, 2G9 ; enterprise in 
the Southwest, 280 ; circum- 
stances of his trial, 281-284 ; 
legislative results of the trial of, 
285. 

Callender, his coimection and sub- 
sequent quarrel with Jefferson, 
225-230 ; the slanderer of Wash- 
ington and Hamilton, 22G, 

Camiing, disingenuous behavior of, 
in the Chesapeake affair, 300 ; 
remarks about the embargo, 312. 

Chase, Judge, impeachment of, 
260-2G3. 

Chatham, Lord, Comments on Co- 
lonial Congress, 26. 

Chesapeake, The, fired into by the 
Leopard, 29G. 

Church Establishment, assailed by 
Jefferson, 45-47. 

Clarke, George Rogers, captures 
Colonel Hamilton, 58. 

Clinton, George, nominated for 
vice-presidency, 269. 

Committees of Correspondence, 
prior to the Revolution, origin of, 
19. 

Cornwallis, Lord, marches upon 
Virginia, 57, GO ; repeats this 
movement and comes to Peters- 
burg, 64 ; pillages Jefferson's 
farm, 66. 

Cuba, Jefferson's views concerning, 
322. 

Declaration- of Independence. See 
Independence. 



348 



INDEX. 



Pemocratic party, the origin of, 1 
145 ; sympathizes with French 
Revolution, 146 : the prospects of, 
at accession of Jefferson, 213-210 ; 
progress of, in New England, 
217 ; remarks concerning it at 
close of Jefferson's first term, 
265 ; signs of division in, 270 ; 
gains in autumn of 1806, 292. See 
JRepiihlican party. 

Dickinson, amends Jefferson's mani- 
festo, 27, 28, note. 

Embargo, recommended, 298 ; sketch 
of Jefferson's connection with the 
measure, 298 ; bill passed, 301 ; re- 
marks concerning it, especially its 
effect upon England, 301-306 ; do- 
mestic effects of, 300 ; at first 
well received, 308 ; Federalist 
views of, 301, 309 ; threatened op- 
position to, 310, 313 ; remarks of 
Canning and Bonaparte about, 
312. 

Entails, abolished in Virginia, 43. 

Fauquier, Francis, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, a friend of Jefferson, 8. 

Fenno, edits the "Gazette," 133. 

Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, in Con- 
gress, 20 ; share in authorship of 
Declaration of Independence, 33 ; 
share m proceedings concerning 
adoption of the Declaration, 38. 

Freneau, Philip, story of his estab- 
lishment of the "National Ga- 
zette " and his connection with 
Jefferson, 132-136, 139. 

Gallatin, Albert, advice of Jeffer- 
son to, 323 ; friendship of Jeffer- 
son for, 323. 

Ga.spee, burning of the, 19. 

Genet, lands in Charleston, 149; 
equips privateers, 151, 156 ; makes 
triumphant journey to Philadel- 
pliia, 152 ; rebuked by Jefferson, 
155, 156, 158 ; his lawless conduct, 
1.5(5 ; excites Jefferson's indigna- 
tion, 158-160 ; criticises Jefferson, 
160. 

Gerry, appointed to French mission, 
181 ; accepts, 182 ; stay in Paris, 
187, 188. 

Giles, introduce* resolutions to cen- 
sure Hamilton. 122 ; defends Jef- 
ferson's report on commerce, 167. 

Grange, The, captured by the Am- 
buscade, 152 ; reparation demand- 
ed, 155. 



Hamilton, Alexander, position in 
Washington's cabinet, 97 ; manip- 
ulates the matter of assumption 
of state debts, 97-100; influence 
of his measures, 102 ; his financial 
system criticised by Jefferson, 
104-106 ; relations with Jefferson, 
107-109 ; charged with monarchi- 
cal schemes, 113, 115, 138 ; pre- 
pares argument in support of na- 
tional bank, 119; charged with 
schemes of corruption, 121, 125. 
126, 127, 138 ; resolutions for cen- 
suring, 122 ; charged with wish- 
ing to make national debt perpet- 
ual, 122, 125, 126, 138 ; report on 
manufactures, 126 ; alleged re- 
marks about the Constitution, 
126 ; attacks Jefferson in news- 
papers under name of "An Amer- 
ican," 135; reply to Washington, 
136 ; sentiments concerning the 
French Revolution, 146, 147, 152 ; 
defends Jay's treaty, 170 ; uses 
his influence to make Jefferson 
President, 205 ; the Reynolds 
amour, 226. 

Hamilton, Colonel, captured and 
put in irons, 58, and note. 

Hancock, John, anecdote of, when 
signing Declaration of Independ- 
ence, 38. 

Harrison, Benjamin, signs Declara- 
tion of Independence, anecdote, 
39. 

Henry, Patrick, a personal friend of 
Jefferson, 17 ; treatment of Jef- 
ferson's draft of instructions, 21 ; 
first governor of Virginia, 55, 50, 
59. 

Independence, Lee's motion in favor 
of, 32 ; resolution in favor of, car- 
ried, 35, 36 ; appointment of com- 
mittee to draft Declaration of, 33 ; 
accomit of this drafting, 33 ; de- 
bate on the Declaration, 30-38; 
anecdotes of final signature of 
Declai-ation, 38 ; unfair criticisms 
on form of Declaration, 39, 40. 

Jacobins, name assumed by some 
democrats in the United States, 
154 ; Jefferson'.^ sentiments to- 
wards the American clubs, 168. 

Jay, John, his English treaty, 169- 
171 ; proposals to make him Presi- 
dent in 1800, 201, 202. 

Jefferf on. Peter, his career, 3, 4 ; 
comiectiou mth the Randolphs, Z, 



INDEX. 



349 



Jefferson, Tliomas, born, 2 ; ances- 
try, 3 ; appearance and habits in 
youth, 4, 5 ; goes to college, 5 ; 
habits there, (>. 7 ; reads law, 7, 8 ; 
his associates, 8 ; his youthful cor- 
respondence and love affairs, 8, 
9; marries, 9; his property, 10; 
career at the bar, 10 ; love of 
farming, 1 1-15 ; opinion of farm- 
ers as compared with artificers, 
12 et seq. ; views of yellow fever 
and great citie ;, 13 ; wishes United 
States to occupy position of China, 
14 ; his utilitarianism and dreami- 
ness, 15 ; his romantic graveyard, 
15 ; relationship with Patrick 
Henry, 17 ; first election to House 
of Burgesses, 18 ; signs non-im- 
portation agreemexit, 18; a sec- 
ond time a member of the House 
of Burgesses, 19 ; action upon 
hearing of the Boston Port Bill, 
20 ; an advanced patriot, 19, 20 ; 
member of Virginia State Conven- 
tion, 21 ; his draft of instructions 
for Virginian members of Con- 
gress, its fate and contents, 21- 
24 ; becomes member of Colonial 
Congress, 24-2G ; drafts reply of 
Virginia to Lord North's ' ' con- 
ciliatory proposition," 24 ; drafts 
manifesto after battle of Bunker's 
Hill, 27 ; drafts reply of Congress 
to Lord North, 28 ; returns to 
State Convention, 29 ; reelected 
to Congress, 29 ; opinion concern- 
ing separation and independence, 
29-31, 32 ; letter to John Ran- 
dolph, 30 ; in Congress, 31 ; chair- 
man of Committee to draft Dec- 
laration of Independence, 33 ; 
claim to authorship of Declara- 
tion, 33 ; reason of his prominent 
position in this business, 34 ; be- 
havior of, during debate on Dec- 
laration, 3G-38 ; reply to criti- 
cisma on Declaration, 40 ; bemg 
reelected to Congress, declines to 
serve, 41 ; interest in reforming 
internal affairs of Virginia, 42 ; 
reports bill to abolish entails, 43 ; 
and primogeniture, 44 ; attack on 
the Established Church, 45-47 ; 
his religious views, 45 ; takes 
charge of general revision of laws 
of Virginia, 48-50 ; efforts to do 
away with negro slavery, 50-53 ; 
opinion of negroes, 53 ; stops im- 
portation of slaves, 53 ; elected 
governor of Virginia, 55; ardu- 



ous duties, 56 ; his propei'ty im- 
pressed, 57 ; assailed for sending 
forces out of the State, 57 ; puts 
Colonel Hamilton in irons, 58; 
behavior concerning invasion of 
Virginia, 61 et seq. ; attempts to 
capture Arnold, 63 ; resolves not 
to be candidate for reelection, 63 ; 
his term expires, but he has to 
hold over, 64 ; driven from his 
house by Colonel Tarlton, 65 ; his 
farms pillaged, &(i ; threatened 
with legislative investigation, 67 ; 
his defence, and final exculpation, 
68 ; harassed by public criticism, 
70 ; finishes " Notes on Virginia," 
70 ; rebuked by Monroe, 70 ; loses 
his wife, 71 ; adopts children of 
Dabney Carr, 72 ; list of his chil- 
dren, 72 ; affection for them, 
71, 72 ; nominated on mission to 
France, 72, 73 ; chosen a member 
of Congress, 73 ; takes part in 
ratification of treaty of peace, 
74 ; other services in Congress, 
74 ; suggests substance of the or- 
dinance of the Northwestern Ter- 
ritory, 75 ; suggests extraordinary 
names for Northwestern Territory, 
76 ; leaves Congress, 76 ; a fourth 
time appointed on mission to 
France and departs, 77 ; his situa- 
tion and duties in France, 77-79 ; 
proposition concerning Algerine 
corsairs, 79 ; makes diplomatic 
visit to London, 79 ; opinion of 
English feeling towards the States, 
80-84 ; changes in condition of 
France during his stay there, 84 ; 
his interest and concern therein, 
85-87 ; interview with Montmorin, 
86 ; how far influenced by French 
ideas, 87 ; returns home, 88, 96 ; 
compares Europe with the United 
States, 89 ; opinion of Shays' in- 
surrection, 90 ; opinion as to 
forms of government, 92 ; opinion 
as to closer miion of the States, 
92 ; and concerning the new Con- 
stitution, 93-95 ; accepts offer of 
secretaryship of state, 96 ; share 
in Hamilton's scheme for carry- 
ing assumption of state debts, 
97-100 ; afterwards regrets his 
behavior and attacks Hamilton, 
100-102 ; strange notions as to 
national debts, 103 ; criticisms on 
Hamilton's financiering, 104-106 ; 
situation in Wasliington's cabinet, 
106 ; relations with Hamilton, 



350 



INDEX. 



107-109,- writes the "Anas," 
109 ; faith in laxity of govern- 
ment, 111 ; dread of the Hamil- 
tonian and monarcliical parties, 
112-117, 124, 126, 127, 128; 
alarmed at successful speculation 
of Federalists, 117 ; dissatisfied 
with military establishi lent, 118 ; 
with excise, 118 ; opposes National 
Bank Act, 118-121 ; charges 
Hamilton with corruption, 121, 
124, 127 ; sympathizes with res- 
olutions of censure, 122 ; de- 
scribes the House of Representa- 
tives, 122, 125 ; declares that 
Hamilton wishes to make the 
national debt everlasting, 122, 
124, 125 ; letter to Washington, 
reviewing the political situation, 
123 ; attacks Hamilton's report 
on manufactures, 126 ; asperses 
John Adams, 127 ; his faith in the 
people, 128-131 ; difficulty grow- 
ing out of publication of " Rights 
of Man," 131 ; appoints Freneau 
to a clerkship, 132, 133; and 
gets into difficulties thereby, 134- 
136 ; his famous letter to Wasli- 
ington, 136-141 ; his manner of 
conducting his opposition to 
Hamilton, 141-143 ; admitted 
leader of the anti-Federalist or 
Republican party, 144 ; sympa- 
thizes wdth the French Revolu- 
tionists, 147 ; sentiments as to 
neutrality proclamation, 150, 151 ; 
feelings towards Attorney-Gen- 
eral Randolph, 150, 153; behav- 
ior at the time of the Genet 
reception, 152 ; talk about Anglo- 
maniacs, 152; antipathy to Eng- 
land, 153 ; feelings about the 
Jacobins and the French massa- 
cres, 154 ; rebukes Genet, 155, 158 ; 
first opinion of Genet, 155, 156 ; 
subsequent changes of opinion, 
158-160 ; advice as to prepayment 
of debt to France, 157 ; sanguine 
expectations, 157, destroyed by 
Genet's conduct, 159 ; his conduct 
during Genet's mission reviewed, 
160-162 ; efforts to resign, 163 ; 
unjustly blamed for resigning, 164 ; 
plantation life, 166 ; expressions 
of feeling towards Great Britain, 
and about war, 166, 167 ; assails 
the Senate for rejecting the Non- 
Importation Bill, 167 ; his report 
on commerce, 167 ; vexed at 
Washington's cpndemnatiou of 



Jacobin clubs, 168 ; feelings to- 
wards Washington, 168, 171, 177, 
186 ; defends the whiskey insur- 
rection, 169 ; assails Jay's treaty, 
169-171 ; his dread of Hamilton, 
170, 176 ; in the tliird presidential 
election, 174 ; protestations about 
his own feelings, 175 ; arrange- 
ments concerning notice of elec- 
tion, etc., 176; anticipations of 
Republican supremacy, 176 ; 
schemes for influencing Adams, 
177-179 ; discussion with Adams 
concerning French mission, 178 ; 
French interest in election of 
Jefferson to presidency, 179 ; 
fears trouble with France, 181 ; 
urges Gerry to accept French 
mission, 182 ; sketches state of 
feeling at the capital, 182 ; letter 
to Mazzei, 183-185 ; behavior at 
time of X Y Z correspondence, 
180 ; draws Kentucky Resolutions, 
193 ; rebukes secession doctrines 
of others, 194 ; expectations as to 
elections of 1800, 195 ; slander- 
ously assailed in the presidential 
campaign, 196; drills the Repub- 
lican, or Democratic, party, 197 - 
199 ; vote for, in electoral col- 
leges, 1800, 200; anxiety and be- 
havior during election by House of 
Representatives, 200-205 ; elected, 
205 ; charged with having made 
terms, 206 ; behavior towards 
Burr, 207 ; inauguration, 210 ; 
interview with Mr, Merry, 211 ; 
opinion as to political outlook, 
212-216, 218; feeling towards 
New England, 216 ; antipathy to- 
wards the clergy, 217 ; action 
concerning the filling of offices, 
218 ; and as to removals from 
office, 219-224 ; removal of J. Q. 
Adams, 223 ; his appointments, 
224 ; rule, in such matters con- 
cerning political activity, 224 ; 
appointment of Samuel Bishop, 
224 ; story of his connection and 
quarrel with Callender, 225-230; 
opinion of the Sedition law, 227 ; 
values highly the right of navi- 
gating the Mississippi, 232 ; de- 
mands the use of a port at the 
river's mouth, 233-235 ; faintly 
foreshadows Monroe doctrine, 
235 ; objects to France regaining 
Louisiana, 236, 237-239 ; difficul- 
ties in way of his plans for gain- 
ing Louisiana, 239-241 ; receivea 



INDEX. 



351 



authority and money from Con- 
gress, 242 ; instructs Monroe, 

243 ; letter to Dupont de Nemours, 

244 ; entitled to credit for pur- 
chase of Louisiana, 246 ; answers 
to the various objections raised 
to the purchase, 247-250 ; plan 
for colonization, 248 ; for taking 
possession, 249 ; led into incon- 
sistencies by this transaction, 
251 ; remarks about states' rights 
and secession in this coimection, 
253-255 ; justification for his 
course, 255 ; efforts to obtain a 
constitutional ratification, 256- 
258 ; personal animosities, 259 ; 
message concerning Judge Picker- 
ing, 259 ; share in the impeach- 
ment of Judge Cliase, 260-263 ; re- 
view of liis position and record at 
close of his first term, 263-268 ; 
nominated for a second term, 268 ; 
his feelings about a second term, 
269 ; elected, 271 ; his sangume 
anticipations, 272 ; change of feel- 
ing towards France and England, 
273-276 ; designs for purchase of 
Florida, 276 ; disturbed by defec- 
tion of Randolph, 277, 278; be- 
havior concerning Burr's enter- 
prise, 280 ; and subsequently dur- 
ing Burr's trial, 281-284 ; abused 
by Luther Martin, 282 ; strictures 
on Judge Slarshall's summons, 
283-285 ; communication to Con- 
gress concerning the trial of 
Burr, 285 ; sentiments concerning 
French and English breaches of 
American neutrality, 286, 287 ; 
carries through a Non-Importa- 
tion Act, 288 ; conciliatory course 
towards England, 289 ; his gmi- 
boats, 290, 292, 298 ; anger 
against Spain concerning Louis- 
iana, 291 ; political theory about 
the Gulf Stream, 291 ; sanguine 
message of December 1, 1806, 
292 ; remarks concerning internal 
improvements, 292-294, 329, 330 ; 
recommends suspension of Non- 
Importation Act, 294, 295 ; rejects 
treaty of Monroe and Pinckney 
with England, 294 ; remarks and 
doings concerning the Leopard- 
Chesapeake outrage, 296 - 298 ; 
message to extra session of Con- 
gress in October, 1807, 298 ; recom- 
mends an embargo, 298; arguments 
in its favor, 302 ; inconsistency, 306 ; 
his supremacy over Congress aod 



the country, 308 ; course of his 
opinion about the embargo, 310- 
316 ; message about it in Novem- 
ber, 1808, 311 ; repudiates respon- 
sibility, 316 ; influence concerning 
choice of his own successor in the 
presidency, 317 ; urged to accept 
a third presidential term, 318 ; 
popularity with the masses, 318- 
320 ; relations with Madison, 321 ; 
advice as to treaty with Eng- 
land, 322 ; expectations concern- 
ing Florida and Cuba, 322 ; modi- 
fied opinions concerning com- 
merce and manufactures, 322, 
323 ; advice to Gallatin concern- 
ing national debt, 323 ; friendship 
for Gallatin, 323 ; anticipations 
concerning war with England, 
323-325 ; urged to become candi- 
date for presidency in 1812, 325 ; 
ottered secretaryship of state, 
325 ; friendly sentiments towards 
England, 326 ; reconciliation with 
John Adams, 327 ; alarm concern- 
ing Missouri Compromise, 327 ; 
and forebodings of civil war, 328 ; 
regards the compromise as incon- 
sistent with states' rights, 328 ; 
hostility to the judiciary, 329 ; 
the sage of Monticello, 331 ; hos- 
pitality at Monticello, 331-333; 
payment of pre-revolutionary Eng- 
lish debt, 334 ; financial att'airs, 
335, and embarrassments, 335- 
338 ; connection with University 
of Virginia, 338 ; opinions con- 
cerning Christianity, 339 - 341 ; 
anxiety concerning historical pres- 
entation of his times, 341-343 ; 
opinion of Marshall's " Life of 
Washington," 342; failing health, 
343 ; death, 344. 

Kentucky Resolxjtions, drafted by 

Jefferson, 193. 
Knox, General, a partisan of Hara> 

ilton in Washuigton's cabinet, 

150. 

Leander, The, outrage committed 
by, 288, 289. 

Lee, Richard Henry, moves that 
Congress declare the Colonies in- 
dependent, 32 ; reasons why he 
was not chairman of committee 
for drafting Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 34. 

Leopard, The, fires into the Che6ft> 
peake, 296. 



352 



INDEX. 



Leslie, General, invades Virginia, 
59, 60. 

Lincoln, Levi, interrupts Marshall 
in signature of commissions, 209. 

Livingston, services of, concerning 
purchase of Louisiana, 242, 2-13. 

Louisiana, objections to France re- 
gaining from Spain, 236, 2u7-239 ; 
but it is ceded, 237 ; Napoleon 
proposes to sell, 246 ; purchased 
by United States, 246 ; constitu- 
tional and other objections to pur- 
chase of, 247, 253; threats of 
trouble concerning eastern bound- 
ary, 276, 291. 

Madison, James, aids Jefferson in 
reforming laws of Virginia, 43 ; 
blames Jefferson, 70 ; urges Jef- 
ferson to accept secretaryship of 
state, 96 ; recommends Freneau 
to Jefferson , 133 ; defends Jeffer- 
son's report on commerce, 167 ; 
urged to encounter Hamilton con- 
cerning Jay's treaty, 170 ; sug- 
gested for French mission, 178, 
179 ; draws Virginia resolutions, 
194 ; at interview of Jefferson and 
Merry, 211 ; suggested as a suc- 
cessor to Jefferson in the presi- 
dency, 317 ; relations with Jeffer- 
son, 321 ; offers to make Jefferson 
Secretary of State, 325. 

Marshall, John, opinion upholding 
constitutionality of national bank, 
119 ; appointed to French mission, 
181 ; stay in Paris, 187, 188 ; pro- 
posals to make him President in 
1800, 201, 202 ; last acts as Secre- 
tary of State, 209 ; at the trial of 
Aaron Burr, 282, 283 ; Jefferson's 
opinion of his "Life of Washing- 
ton," 342. 

Martin, Luther, behavior of, as 
counsel for Aaron Burr, 282. 

Mason, George, aids Jefferson in 
reformmg the laws of Virginia, 
43. 

Mazzei, Jefferson's famous letter to, 
183. 

Merry, the British minister, inter- 
view with Jefferson, 211. 

Mississippi, the, Spanish ownership 
and American claims, 232. 

Missouri Compromise, opinion of 
Jefferson about, 327 : inconsistent 
with Jefferson's states' rights the- 
ories, 328. 

Monroe, James, rebukes Jefferson, 
70 ; return from French mission, 



180; dispatched to France to buy 
New Orleans, 243 ; his doings in 
tills business, 245, 246 ; minister 
in England, 289 ; makes treaty, 
which is rejected by Jefferson, 294, 
295 ; favored by Jefferson for suc- 
cession to presidency, 317. 

Monroe Doctrine, the, faintly fore- 
shadowed by Jefferson, 235. 

Montmorin, Count, interview with 
Jefferson, 86. 

" National Gazette," the, estab- 
lished by Freneau, 133 ; befriend- 
ed by Jefferson, 134 ; Jefferson's 
account of, 139. 

New England, feeling of Jefferson 
towards, 216. 

New Orleans, Jefferson's views con- 
cerning, 234 : privilege of deposit 
at, cut off, 239. 

Nicholas, George, moves investiga- 
tion of Jefferson's conduct as Gov- 
ernor, 67. 

Nicholas, W. C, amends Jefferson's 
reply to Lord North, 24 ; hastens 
Jefferson's financial ruin, 321. 

Non-Importation Act passed, 288 ; 
suspended, 294, 295. 

Page, John, correspondent of Jef- 
ferson, 9 ; competitor for govern- 
orship of Virginia, 1778-79, 55. 

Paine, Thomas, publishes "Common 
Sense," 32 ; effect of his " Rights 
of Man," 128 ; it makes trouble 
between Adams and Jefferson, 
131. 

Pickering, Judge, impeachment of, 
259. 

Pickering, Timothy, finds fault with 
Declaration of Independence, 39. 

Pinckney, C. C, vote for, in electo- 
ral colleges in 1800, 200. 

Pinckney, Thomas, in the third 
presidential election, 173, 174. 

Primogeniture abolished in Virginia, 
44. 

Randolph, Edmund, Attorney-Gen- 
eral in Washington's cabinet, 97 ; 
behavior and position in cabinet 
concerning relations with France 
and England, 150, 151, 153. 

Randolph, Jane, marries Peter Jef- 
ferson, 3. 

Randolph, John, Jefferson's letter 
to, 30 ; services of, concerning 
purchase of Louisiana, 241, 251 ; 
part in the impeachment of Judge 



INDEX. 



853 



Chase, 2r)'2, 263 : secedes from the 
administrationists, 277-279 ; alli- 
aiiPe with New England mer- 
ohiuts at time of French and 
Enerlish maritirae outrages, 288. 

R indolph, Peyton, President of Vir- 
ginia State Convention, 21 ; leaves 
Colojvial Congress, 24. 

II mdolpli, William, friendship with 
Peter Jelferson, 3. 

"Recorder" The, of Richmond, 
.slanders Jefferson, under influence 
of Callender, 228. 

Rspublican party, the, origin of, 144 ; 
condition of, in election of 180(), 
11>7-rjO. See Democrntic party. 

"Rights of Man." See Paine, 
ThoDKis. 

Rutledge, Edward, in Congress, 21!. 

Seihtion Act, passage of, 193. 

Shays' insurrection, Jelferson's 
opinion of, 9(). 

Skelton, Mrs. Bathurst, Jefferson 
marries, 9. 

SUvery, efforts to abolish in Vir- 
ginia, i30-53 ; Jefferson's opinion 
concerning, 50-53. 

Small, William, Jefferson's instruct- 
or and friend, 6, 8. 

Talleyrand, disgraceful advances to 
American commissioners, 188 ; ex- 
plains, and seeks renewal of nego- 
tiations, 192. 

IHicker, Professor, defence of Colo- 
nel Hamilton, 57. 



UxiTED States, hatred towards, in 
England, 80 ; abused in English 
newspapers, 81. 

University of Virgmia, Jefferson's 
relations with, 338. 

Washington, George, hostility to, 
35 ; orders concerning treatment 
of Britisli prisoners, 58 : makes 
Jefferson Secretary of State, 9C> ; 
composition of his cabinet, 97, 106; 
rejects Jefferson's stories of mon- 
archical plots, 115, 116 ; annoyed 
at discussions in cabmet, 123 ; at- 
tacked by Freneau in the "Na- 
tional Gazette," 1.34; endevvons 
to reconcile Hamilton and Jeffer- 
son, 136 ; opposes Jefferson's res- 
ignation, 163, 164; condemns the 
democratic Jacobin clubs, 168; 
Jefferson's feeling towards, 168, 
171, 177, 186 : and the Mazzei let- 
ter, 185 ; feelings of Adams and 
Pickering towards, 186. 

Wayles, John, Jefferson's father-iu- 
law, dies, 10. 

William and Mary College, Jeffer- 
son a student in, 5. 

Williamsburg, appearance of, in 
17(i0, 5. 

Wythe, George, the law office of, 7, 
8 ; aids Jefferson in reforming 
laws of Virginia, 43 ; emancipates 
his slaves, 50. 

X Y Z, the so-called, correspond' 
ence, 189, 192. 



%^i^' 



